;iiiii!!aiii!iii: 


;Ml 


LIBRARY 

THE  UNIVERSITY 
OF  CALIFORNIA 

SANTA  BARBARA 

PRESENTED  BY 


JAMES   H.    ALLEN 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 

in  2007  with  funding  from 

IVIicrosoft  Corporation 


http://www.archive.org/details/florence01yriaiala 


FLORENCE 


GMeo's  Tower 


T^UKTii    z  o-anitTj 


EDITION  JRTISTI^E 


^lacejS  antr  peoples 


FLORENCE 


BY 


CHARLES   YRIARTE 


MERRILL    AND    BAKER 
New  York  London 


^^ 


THIS  EDITION  ARTISTIQUE  OF  THE  WORLDS 
FAMOUS  PLACES  AND  PEOPLES  IS  LIMITED 
TO  ONE  THOUSAND  NUMBERED  AND  REGIS- 
TERED COPIES,  OF  WHICH  THIS  COPY  IS 
KO. 


Copyright,  Hcary  T.  CoaU*  &  Co.,  1897 


CONTENTS 


PAGE 

Inteodtjction, 1 

Chapter  I.    History,        .       .       .       .       .        .       .11 

II.    The  Medici, 27 

III.  The  Renaissakce, 121 

IV.  Illustrious  Florentines,  ....    139 
v.    Etruscan  Art, 266 

VI.  Christian  Art, 280 

VII.  Architecture, 285 

Vin.  Sculpture, 348 

IX.  Painting, 417 


(v) 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS 

VOLUME  I 


PAOB 

Gawi^eo's  Tower  ....  Frontispiece 

Portrait  of  Dante  from  the  Fresco  in  the 

Bargei,i<o  ......       20 

The  Duomo,  Cathedrai,  of  S.  Maria  dei*  Fiore, 

Scene  of  the  Pazzi  Conspiracy       .  .       60 

Portrait  of  Bianca  Cappei,i,o         .  .  .94 

The    Great    Ci^oister,    Church    of    S.   Maria 

NovEivi^A    .  .  .  .  .  .152 

Cloisters  of  S.  Croce  and  Pazzi  Chapei.  .      198 

Fra  Girolamo  Savonarola  ....      234 

A. 


FLORENCE. 


INTRODUCTION. 

Italy  in  the  thirteenth  century  carried  on  and 
brought  to  its  crowning  point  the  work  of  civilization 
which  France  in  the  twelfth  century  had  started  by 
means  of  the  crusades,  the  establishment  of  communal 
franchises,  and  the  foundation  of  the  University  of 
Paris.  The  symbol  created  by  the  genius  of  Lucre- 
tius, where  the  successive  labor  of  generations  is  rep- 
resented by  running-men  passing  their  torches  from 
hand  to  hand,  had  never  been  realized  with  so  much 
grandeur ;  the  sacred  torches  had  fallen  from  French 
hands,  and  had  been  picked  up  by  Italy,  in  whose 
grasp  they  emitted  a  light  which  dazzled  the  whole 
world. 

Rome,  notwithstanding  the  Barbarian  invasion,  the 
schism,  and  the  exile  of  the  Papacy,  stUl  retained  the 
recollection  of  her  glorious  past,  brought  even  more 
vividly  before  her  by  the  superb  monuments  which 
had  withstood  the  ravages  of  time  and  of  man.  But 
even  Rome,  like  the  rest  of  Italy,  acknowledged  the 
superiority  of  Florence  comparable  to  Athens  itself, 
and  all  the  cities  of  Italy  did  homage  to  her  genius, 

1  (1) 


2  FLORENCK 

for  she,  together  with  Siena,  had  been  the  first  to 
make  the  onward  move.  In  the  course  of  a  century, 
from  Dante  and  Giotto  to  the  first  of  the  Medici, 
from  the  two  Pisani  to  Brunelleschi,  Donatello,  and 
Alberti,  Florence  reached  the  summit  of  human 
thought  and  the  zenith  of  plastic  beauty.  While  at 
the  very  moment  when  it  seemed  as  if  she  must 
exhausted  by  the  efibrts  which  resulted  in  the 
birth  of  the  Renaissance,  she  was  about  to  produce 
the  two  human  beings,  Leonardo  da  Vinci  and  Michael 
Angelo,  who  in  the  domain  of  Art  bring  most  nearly 
home  to  us  the  divine  origin  of  our  poor  humanity. 
We  must  go  back  to  Greek  Art  and  to  the  age  of 
Pericles  for  another  such  epoch  in  the  world's  history; 
and  to  form,  some  idea  of  the  revolution  which  was 
then  brought  about,  we  must  revert  to  the  advent  of 
Christianity,  which  founded  modem  society  upon  the 
ruins  of  the  old  world. 

It  will  be  my  endeavor  to  trace,  as  I  proceed,  the 
causes,  direct  and  indirect,  of  this  unquestioned  supe- 
riority of  Florence  over  the  other  cities  of  the  Penin- 
sula. To  the  sum  of  human  knowledge  which  con- 
stitutes the  trading  capital  of  humanity,  Florence 
contributed  the  largest  share,  and  she  further  and 
above  all  possessed  that  gift  and  privilege  of  plastic 
beauty,  just  as  some  of  God's  creatures  have  the 
privilege  of  gracefulness.  There  was  a  period  in  her 
history  when  everything  that  her  artists  touched 
turned  to  gold.     Their  works  were  instinct  with  the 


INTEODUCTION.  8 

profound  faith  that  inspired  them,  and  their  consum- 
mate strength  and  skill  were  masked  by  the  graceful- 
ness of  their  finish.  Even  to  this  day  the  marbles, 
frescoes,  and  manuscripts  produced  during  this  bril- 
liant epoch  in  Florence,  or  by  Florentines,  retain  a 
rare  and  unique  individuality,  an  undefinable  some- 
thing made  up  of  nobiUty,  grandeur,  calm  strength, 
and  sober  elegance.  Our  eyes  are  attracted  at  a 
street  comer,  under  a  porch,  in  a  gallery,  or  on  the 
walls  of  a  convent,  as  the  case  may  be,  by  some  ob- 
ject which  stands  out  in  such  relief  that  the  surround- 
ing objects  are,  so  to  speak,  obliterated.  This  is 
because  the  soul  of  Florence  has  passed  into  the  in- 
spired work :  we  recognize  the  sign  by  which  all  the 
works  of  the  fifteenth  century  in  Italy  are  marked, 
as  we  breathe  the  soft  and  subtle  perfume  which  they 
exhale. 

This  superiority  of  Florentine  Art  has  been  every- 
where felt,  and  all  Italy  was  subject  to  its  peaceful 
yoke  as  we  are  to-day.  From  Papal  Rome,  where 
the  illustrious  pontiffs  of  the  fifteenth  and  sixteenth 
centuries  gathered  about  them  the  artists  of  Florence 
and  the  humanists  of  Tuscany,  to  the  condottieri  who 
wore  the  purple  at  Milan,  Urbino,  Ferrara,  Mantua, 
Rimini,  and  Bologna,  all  the  rulers  of  Italy  sought  to 
assemble  a  court  composed  in  the  main  of  illustrious 
Florentines.  If  they  wanted  to  erect  a  cathedral  or 
church,  to  cast  an  equestrian  statue  of  some  famous 
soldier,  to  write  the  history  of  some  great  city,  or  to 


4  FLORENCE. 

train  the  heir  to  a  principality,  it  was  to  Florence 
that  they  turned  their  attention.  Florence  was  the 
focus,  the  school,  and  the  laboratory  of  human  genius, 
and  though  there  were  other  centres  of  intelligence — 
each  northern  town  being  in  the  fifteenth  century  a 
miniature  Athens — Florence  predominated  over  them 
aU. 

There  are  three  distinct  periods  in  the  history  of 
Florence.  From  the  second  half  of  the  thirteenth  to 
the  end  of  the  fourteenth  century  she  was  struggling 
for  existence,  and  torn  by  the  conflicting  passions  of 
her  own  citizens  divided  by  hereditary  feuds.  She 
attempted  to  establish  liberty,  but  only  succeeded  in 
paving  the  way  for  an  Athenian  form  of  tyranny 
which  had  genius  for  its  excuse  and  the  majority  of 
the  citizens  for  its  accomplices.  Yet  amid  these  in- 
cessant struggles  of  Guelphs  and  Ghibellines,  and  in 
spite  of  continual  disturbances,  the  work  of  elabora- 
tion was  ever  going  on,  and  has  been  a  cause  of  as- 
tonishment to  all  the  historians  of  that  period.  In 
France  the  English  invasion  and  intestine  strug- 
gles had  extinguished  civil  life,  and  had  put  back  the 
progress  of  humanity ;  but  in  Tuscany  the  flower  of 
the  Renaissance  grew  and  bloomed  in  blood,  unfold- 
ing itself  in  all  its  beauty  at  the  dawn  of  the  fifteenth 
century.  This  was  the  second  and  most  brilliant  of 
the  three  periods  :  that  which  was  adorned  by  Cosimo, 
Father  of  his  Country,  and  by  Lorenzo  the  Magnifi- 
cent ;  by  savants,  such  as  Marcilio  Ficino,  Politian, 


INTRODUCTION.  6 

Pico  della  Mirandola,  Cristofero  Landino,  Baccio  Ugo- 
lini,  Rinuccini,  and  the  two  Acciajuoli ;  by  artists, 
like  Brunelleschi,  Michelozzo  Michelozzi,  Donatelio, 
Leo  Battista  Alberti ;  and  by  men  of  political  genius, 
such  as  Leonardo  Bruni  Aretino,  Machiavelli,  and 
Carlo  Marsuppini. 

At  the  time  of  the  siege  of  Florence  (1530),  the 
splendor  of  this  period  was  at  its  apogee,  but  with 
the  exception  of  Galileo,  who  was  destined  to  dis- 
cover fresh  truths,  all  the  great  innovators  were  in 
their  graves.  Michael  Angelo  upon  his  bastion,  for- 
tifying Florence  and  defending  San  Miniato,  is  sym- 
bohc  of  the  genius  of  Florence  struggling  for  inde- 
pendence and  freedom  against  Charles  V.  When  the 
city  opened  her  gates  the  Republic  was  doomed,  and 
the  days  of  her  greatness  were  numbered  with  the  past. 

The  sixteenth  century  was  not  a  barren  one. 
Tumultuous,  full  of  life,  and  with  a  tendency  to  ex- 
tremes, it  was  more  turbulent  than  the  fifteenth  j  and 
ever  eager  to  learn,  it  gave  birth  to  a  vast  number 
of  works,  devoid,  however,  of  the  ardent  faith,  the 
conscientiousness,  and  the  infinite  depth  which  marked 
the  preceding  era.  John  of  Bologna,  with  his  martial 
air,  Benvenuto  himself,  who  may  be  looked  upon  as  a 
condottiere  who  had  by  some  accident  foimd  his  way 
into  the  career  of  Art,  and  who,  for  all  his  fine  ways, 
was  an  artist  to  the  core,  with  all  the  qualities  and 
defects  of  his  age,  cannot  make  us  forget  the  gentle 
Desiderio,  the  tender  Mino,  and   Donatelio,  about 


6  FLORENCK 

whose  works  there  is  always  something  novel,  dis- 
tinctive, and  grandiose. 

No  one  will  feel  surprised  when  I  say  that  it  is  the 
second  period,  from  the  thirteenth  century  to  the  fall 
of  the  Repubhc,  which  has  been  the  subject  of  my  pre- 
dilection. It  seems  to  have  come  to  be  understood 
within  the  last  twenty  years  that,  with  the  exception 
of  two  or  three  great  figures  which  are  the  synthesis 
of  human  genius,  and  which  shed  their  lustre  over 
the  early  part  of  the  sixteenth  century  in  Italy, 
humanity  disclosed  nearly  all  its  secrets  from  the  time 
of  Dante  to  the  death  of  Michael  Angelo  and  of  Leo- 
nardo da  Vinci.  While  if  contemporary  chroniclers 
have  exhausted  all  that  there  is  to  say  concerning  the 
great  literary  and  philosophical  characters,  the  history 
of  Art  is  only  just  dawning.  Benozzo  Gozzoli,  Lippi, 
Memmi,  Pollaiolo,  Piero  della  Francesca,  Botticelli, 
Baccio  Baldini,  Pisanello,  Finiguerra,  Benedetto  da 
Ma'iano,  Michelozzo,  Desiderio,  and  their  contempo- 
raries have  been  but  little  known  in  modem  times, 
and  their  works  not  familiar  even  in  their  native 
places. 

The  period  which  begins  with  the  first  Grand  Duke 
of  Tuscany,  Cosimo  I.,  and  finishes  with  John  Gaston, 
was  not  devoid  of  glory  for  Florence.  If  the  indi- 
viduals are  less  famous,  and  if  a  sovereign  like 
Lorenzo  the  Magnificent  is  replaced  by  one  plunged 
in  crime  like  Cosimo,  there  was  an  impetus  acquired, 
a  traditional  greatness,  a  flow  of  sap  which   con- 


INTRODUCTION.  7 

tinned  to  produce  flowers  and  fruit.  The  last 
prince  of  this  race  had  a  glimmer  of  intellectual 
genius,  a  desire  to  learn,  a  spark  of  sacred  fire,  and  a 
certain  sense  of  what  was  due  to  posterity  which  in- 
duced him  to  bequeath  to  his  country  Art  treasures 
testifying  clearly  to  his  magnificence,  his  judgment, 
and  his  taste.  Now  and  again,  even  during  its  de- 
cline, may  be  seen  some  sudden  flicker  of  the  Flor- 
entine genius  about  to  be  extinguished ;  and  the  period 
of  the  decadence  of  Florence  with  the  Academy  of 
the  Cimento  would  pass  muster  for  the  Renaissance 
of  some  benighted  peoples. 

The  genius  of  Florence  was  incarnate  in  the  Medici; 
it  has  therefore  been  necessary  to  write  the  history 
of  these  merchant  princes,  who  had  the  honor  of 
twice  giving  their  name  to  the  century  in  which  they 
lived:  with  Cosimo  and  Lorenzo  at  Florence,  and 
with  Leo  X.  at  Rome.  After  having  related  the  his- 
tory of  the  Medici,  I  have  sketched  the  movement 
known  as  the  Renaissance,  endeavoring  to  explain 
why  Italy  was  the  country  of  its  bu'th,  and  have  com- 
prised in  this  essay  biographies,  summary  in  their 
character  but  derived  from  the  most  trustworthy 
sources,  of  the  leading  personages  in  philosophy  and 
literature. 

The  principal  monuments  of  Florence  give  us  an 
insight  into  her  civil  life,  for  at  that  period  the  char- 
acters of  men  were  reflected  with  great  distinctness 
in  their  works.     In  this  remarkable  city,  where  were 


8  FLORENCE. 

bom  all  the  great  ideas  upon  which  are  based  the 
glory,  the  prosperity,  and  the  experience  of  modem 
society,  the  Palazzo  Vecchio — to  take  only  this  one 
building,  of  which  D'Azeglio  has  said  that  it  is  a 
magnificent  preface  to  the  annals  of  Florence — fit- 
tingly symbolizes,  by  its  rugged  exterior  and  splendid 
ornamentation  within,  the  dual  character  of  an  epoch 
in  which  the  body  was  hardy  while  the  mind  was  re- 
fined and  eager  for  knowledge.  The  history  and  art 
of  Florence  are  in  her  streets ;  and  to  walk  about  her 
squares,  and  to  visit  her  churches  and  palaces,  is 
equivalent  to  reading  the  chronicles  of  the  city  from 
the  twelfth  to  the  sixteenth  century. 

Art  necessarily  occupied  a  large  place  at  Florence, 
for  the  city  was  at  once  a  museum  and  a  temple.  I 
have,  therefore,  treated  the  arts  from  their  very  be- 
ginning, that  is  the  Etruscan  period,  to  their  deca- 
dence, in  chronological  order,  describing  the  genius 
of  each  artist  and  the  position  which  he  held,  rather 
than  attempting  to  give  his  biography. 

I  do  not  retract  what  I  said  in  my  book  on  Venice, 
when  I  described  the  Frari,  and  the  San  Giovanni  and 
Paolo  monuments  as  the  most  splendid  which  had  ever 
been  erected  to  the  memory  of  man,  not  even  except- 
ing those  of  the  Vatican,  of  St.  John  Lateran,  and  of 
Santa  Maria  del  Popolo :  but  while  those  at  Florence, 
erected  in  the  middle  of  the  fifteenth  century,  are 
plainer  and  less  pompous,  they  are  more  himian  and 
more  touching,  and  Leopardi  himself,  with  the  in- 


INTEODUCTION.  9 

stincts  of  an  artist,  bent  the  knee  to  Desiderio  and 
Donatello.  Michael  Angelo  is  more  grandiose  and 
inscrutable,  stirring  the  imagination  and  inspiring  a 
sort  of  religious  terror  with  those  enigmatic  figures 
which  seem  to  be  carrying  on  in  the  obscurity  of  the 
tomb  "  the  inward  dream  never  to  be  completed ;" 
but  with  all  his  genius  he  lacked  the  infinite  candor, 
the  angelic  softness,  and  the  exquisite  chasteness  of 
these  sculptors  of  the  fifteenth  century.  They  re- 
mind us  of  Greece,  where  flowers  were  scattered  over 
the  graves,  giving  an  impress  of  gentle  repose  and 
peace  to  death,  and  stripping  it  of  its  sinister  char- 
acteristics. The  philosopher  and  the  cardinal  whom 
Rosellino  and  Desiderio  respectively  have  chiselled 
upon  the  marble  sarcophagus  seem  to  be  sleeping 
peacefiiUy,  and  their  faces  only  reflect  the  calm  and 
the  beatitude  of  the  blessed  who  know  eternal  truth. 

I  need  not  say  that  it  is  impossible  to  describe 
within  the  limits  of  this  book  the  whole  history  of 
Florence,  I  can  only  endeavor  to  give  the  essence  of 
it.  Those  who  do  not  know  the  city  may  perhaps  be 
tempted  to  visit  her,  while  those  who  have  been  so 
fortunate  as  to  dwell  within  her  walls  wiU,  I  venture 
to  hope,  be  carried  back  in  memory  to  her,  and  evolve 
from  the  darkness  of  recollection  the  living  and  bright 
reality. 

As  it  was  necessary  to  make  a  choice  from  a  vast 
mass  of  matter,  which  would  have  filled  ten  volumes, 
I  have  divided  the  work  into  several  sections,  begin- 


10  FLORENCE. 

ning  with  the  History  of  Florence  and  the  Renaissance 
Movementy  and  going  on  to  the  Notable  Personages  and 
to  Art  itself.  This  is  not  the  whole  of  Florence,  but 
it  gives,  80  to  speak,  the  soul  of  the  great  city  which 
has  been  the  victim  of  one  of  the  greatest  historical 
movements  of  our  day — the  Unity  of  Italy. 

Florence  has  a  strong  claim  upon  our  affections,  for 
she  is  the  mother  of  all  those  to  whom  the  intellect  is 
more  than  the  body ;  and  her  streets  and  palaces  are 
a  fruitful  source  of  study  and  instruction.  Rome  is 
grander,  and  appeals  more  strongly  to  the  imagina- 
tion; Venice  is  more  strange,  more  imique,  more 
picturesque  ;  but  Florence  is  more  indispensable  than 
either  of  them  to  himianity.  She  has  given  birth  to 
Dante,  the  divine  poet ;  to  Michael  Angelo,  the  "  man 
with  four  souls ;"  and  to  Galileo,  the  blind  man  who 
could  read  in  the  darkness  the  secrets  of  the  universe. 
If  Florence  disappeared  from  off  the  surface  of  the 
globe  the  archives  of  human  thought  would  lose  their 
most  famous  documents,  and  the  modem  Latin  race 
would  go  into  mourning  for  its  ancestors. 


HISTOKY.  11 


CHAPTER    I. 

HISTORY. 

Of  the  many  conflicting  opinions  as  to  the  origin  of 
Florence,  the  one  which  seems  to  have  the  greatest 
weight  of  evidence  in  its  favor  is  that  it  is  Etruscan, 
or  at  all  events  that  it  owed  its  creation  to  the  dSbris 
of  the  last  Etruscan  cities  conquered  by  the  Romans. 
It  absorbed  those  colonists  whom  the  Greeks  called 
Tyrrhenians,  but  whom  the  Romans  named  Tuscans, 
and  who,  three  centuries  before  the  foundation  of 
Rome,  estabhshed  in  the  heart  of  the  peninsula  a 
powerful  kingdom  extending  from  Pisa  to  Tarquinium, 
between  the  shores  of  the  Mediterranean  and  the  foot 
of  the  Apennines.  Although  Machiavelli,  in  the  first 
chapter  of  his  "  Storie  Florentine,"  represents  Flor- 
ence as  being  a  Roman  colony,  built  by  the  cohorts 
of  Sylla,  modem  science  holds  to  the  opinion  that 
the  town  on  the  banks  of  the  Amo  was  originally  a 
city  formed  by  emigrations  from  Fiesole,  that  cradle  of 
so  many  artists,  from  whose  heights  the  eye  com- 
mands so  grand  a  prospect.* 


*  According  to  one  account,  Catiline  after  conspiring  against 
Borne  fled  to  Fiesole,  whither  the  Bomans,  under  the  consuls 


12  FLORENCR 

Sylla,  the  proconsul,  embellished  the  city,  but  about 
the  middle  of  the  sixth  century  it  suffered  greatly  at 
the  hands  of  the  Goths  and  Vandals,  who  descended 
at  that  time  like  a  plague  upon  Italy.  For  about  the 
space  of  two  hundred  years  little  or  nothing  is  known 
of  Florence,  but  during  the  comparative  peace  and 
order  of  Charlemagne's  rule  she  once  more  emerged 
jfrom  obscurity  and  began  to  take  a  prominent  place 
among  the  Roman  colonies  in  Tuscany,  of  which, 
however,  Pisa  was  at  that  time  the  most  important. 

In  the  year  1010  the  hitherto  rival  cities  of  Flor- 
ence and  Fiesole  formed  an  alliance,  and  the  two 
coats  of  arms  were  blended  to  symbolize  the  union. 
Florence  abandoned  her  white  lily  and  Fiesole  her 
blue  half-moon,  so  that  the  new  device  was  simply  a 
shield  divided  in  the  middle,  the  red  field  of  Florence 
occupying  one  side  and  the  white  field  of  Fiesole  the 
other.* 

Metello  and  Fiorino,  followed  and  fought  him.  Fiorino  was 
killed  on  the  shores  of  the  Amo,  and  Julius  Caesar,  after  aveng- 
ing his  death  by  laying  siege  to  and  destroying  Fiesole,  built  a 
city  on  the  spot  on  which  he  died,  called  Fiorenze,  in  memory  of 
him.  Another  tradition  makes  the  name  a  corruption  of  Flu- 
entia,  because  it  stands  at  the  junction  of  the  Amo  and  the  Mug- 
none  ;  while  still  another  ascribes  its  origin  to  the  great  number 
of  flowers  which  grow  in  that  region. 

"  Alfine  gli  abitanti  per  memoria 
Porch  'era  posta  in  un  prato  di  fiori 
Le  denno  il  nome  bello  onde  s'ingloria." 

*  The  lily,  however,  continues  to  this  day  to  be  used  as  the 


HISTORY.  13 

The  arms  of  the  Republic  underwent  further 
changes  at  each  great  event  in  her  history  (although 
the  standard  displayed  from  the  "  Caroccio  "  in  time 
of  war  was  invariably  the  red  and  white  field  adopted 
in  1010).  This  accounts  for  the  difi'erent  coats  of 
arms  carved  on  the  fagades  of  some  of  her  public 
buildings.  We  find,  for  instance,  the  word  "Libertas" 
on  a  blue  field,  the  device  of  the  Priors  of  the  Arts, 
which  was  adopted  at  the  close  of  the  twelfth  century, 
when  Florence  threw  off  the  imperial  yoke.  The 
golden  keys  crossed  on  a  blue  ground,  bestowed  on 
the  city  in  1265  by  Clement  IV.    An  eagle  trampling 

emblem  of  the  city.  There  are  various  legends  as  to  its  origin. 
The  most  common  one  states  that  when  the  Florentines  were 
being  sore  pressed  by  an  army  of  Barbarians  on  Sta.  Reparata's 
Day,  October  8,  405,  the  saint  suddenly  appeared  on  the  battle- 
field, holding  in  her  hand  a  blood-red  banner  with  a  white  lily 
on  it,  and  turned  the  fortunes  of  the  day.  The  Florentines,  in 
grateful  remembrance  of  this  incident,  adopted  the  white  lily  on 
a  red  ground  as  their  coat  of  arms.  Another  account  tells  how 
in  the  days  of  Numa  Pompilius  a  crimson  shield  fell  from  Heaven 
into  Rome  and  was  adopted  as  the  "insegna  e  amie"  of  the  city. 
The  Romans  subsequently  bestowed  this  "insegna"  upon  all  the 
cities  founded  by  them,  as  Perugia,  Florence,  Pisa,  and  the 
Florentines,  in  allusion  to  Fiorino  and  the  name  of  their  city, 
added  the  white  lily  as  an  "  Intrasegna-insegnafrapposta  ad  altra  nel 
campo  deW  arme  geTUilizie." — Villari  Chroniche,  p.  22. 

In  1250  the  red  lily  on  a  white  field  was  adopted.  When,  the 
Guelphs  having  obtained  the  upper  hand,  the  Ghibellines  were 
driven  out  of  the  city,  the  latter  retained  the  white  lily,  and 
added  the  double-headed  eagle  of  the  Empire. — See  Dante,  Di- 
vine C!omedy,  Paradiso,  Cant.  xvi. 


14  FLORENCR 

a  dragon  under  foot,  also  bestowed  by  Clement  IV., 
the  Guelphs  adding  the  small  golden  lily  later.  The 
golden  lilies  on  a  blue  field,  with  a  golden  file,  adopted 
when  Charles  of  Anjou  assumed  the  government  of 
the  city  in  1267.  And  the  shield  divided  perpen- 
dicularly, with  golden  lilies  on  a  blue  field  on  one  side, 
and  red  stripes  on  a  golden  field  on  the  other,  the 
arms  of  Robert  of  Anjou,  King  of  Naples,  appointed 
Lord  of  Florence  in  1313. 

During  the  last  half  of  the  eleventh  century  Flor- 
ence was  ruled  by  the  Coimtess  Matilda.  This  cele- 
brated woman  was  the  last  representative  of  the 
powerful  house  of  Canossa.  Her  mother,  Beatrice  of 
Lorraine,  had  inherited  Tuscany,  Liguria,  part  of 
Lombardy,  Modena,  and  Ferrara,  and  Matilda,  an  ar- 
dent supporter  of  Hildebrand  (Gregory  VII.),  put 
herself  and  her  vast  possessions  at  the  disposal  of  the 
Pope,  bequeathing  everything  she  had  to  the  Holy 
See  at  her  death,  which  occurred  in  1115.  The  Em- 
peror denied  her  right  so  to  dispose  of  her  lands, 
claiming  them  as  fiefs  of  the  Empire,  and  thus  a  large 
part  of  Italy  was  drawn  into  the  struggle  between 
"those  two  halves  of  God,  the  Pope  and  the  Em- 
peror," which  was  destined  to  distract  her  for  cen- 
turies, and  convert  that  beautiful  country  into  a  vast 
battlefield.  Florence,  however,  always  keen  and 
wary,  contrived  to  hold  aloof,  and  quietly  occupied 
herself  in  strengthening  her  own  hands  and  building 
up  a  system  of  self-government,  so  that  in  due  course 


HISTORY.  16 

of  time  she  was  able  not  only  to  resist  the  demands 
of  the  various  imperial  representatives  sent  to  her  by 
Henry  IV.  and  Frederick  Barbarossa,  but  to  adopt  a 
very  independent  tone  in  her  dealings  with  the  Popes 
themselves.  As  early,  however,  as  1177  civil  discord 
broke  out  among  her  citizens.  Many  of  the  powerful 
nobles  living  in  the  neighboring  country  or  "contado" 
had  been  subdued  by  the  Commune,  their  castles  de- 
stroyed, and  they  themselves  forced  to  take  up  their 
abode  in  the  city,  where,  for  some  time  at  least,  they 
were  excluded  from  the  privileges  of  citizenship  and 
all  share  in  the  Government.  Thanks  to  this  policy 
a  strong  "  opposition "  party  was  formed,  composed 
of  these  immigrant  nobles,  several  powerful  families, 
with  the  Uberti  at  their  head,  who  had  been  kept  out 
of  office,  and  aU  the  other  malcontents,  from  whatever 
cause,  who  happened  to  be  in  the  city.  They  rose 
against  the  Government,  and  for  two  years  the  city 
was  the  scene  of  continuous  broils  and  faction  fights. 

In  1184  Frederick  Barbarossa,  temporarily  recon- 
ciled with  the  Holy  See,  visited  the  city  in  person. 
The  nobles,  who  had  gotten  the  worst  of  it  in  their 
struggle  with  the  people,  made  a  formal  complaint  to 
him,  with  the  result  that  Florence,  by  way  of  pun- 
ishment, was  deprived  for  a  short  time  of  her  juris- 
diction over  the  "contado."  Party  feeling  ran  high, 
and  it  needed  but  a  trifling  incident  to  kindle  into 
flames  the  smoldering  embers  of  mutual  distrust. 

In  the  year  1215  a  betrothal  took  place  between  a 


16  FLOBENCE. 

member  of  the  powerful  family  of  Buondelmonte  and 
a  daughter  of  the  Amadei.  As  the  former  was  rid- 
ing through  the  city  one  day  he  was  suddenly  ac- 
costed by  a  lady  of  the  house  of  Donati,  who  re- 
proached him  bitterly  for  allowing  himself  to  be 
drawn  into  an  alliance  in  every  way  unworthy  of 
him,  declaring  that  she  had  always  intended  to  bestow 
her  own  daughter  upon  him,  having  reserved  her  for 
this  very  purpose,  and  concluded  by  pointing  out  the 
maiden  in  question,  who  had  followed  her  mother  to 
the  street.  No  sooner  did  the  bridegroom-elect  set 
eyes  upon  her  than,  captivated  by  her  extraordinary 
beauty,  he  threw  honor  and  prudence  to  the  winds 
and  announced  his  intention  of  marrying  her  forth- 
with. Great  was  the  indignation  of  the  Amadei  when 
news  of  the  insult  reached  them.  A  meeting  was 
held  of  all  the  relatives  and  adherents  of  the  family, 
who  boimd  themselves  by  an  oath  to  avenge  the 
slight  J  and  on  Easter  morning,  lying  in  wait  for  the 
youthful  bridegroom,  they  dragged  him  from  his 
horse  near  the  Ponte  Vecchio  and  murdered  him 
forthwith.  The  whole  city  at  once  flew  to  arms, 
those  whose  leanings  were  towards  the  Guelphs  sid- 
ing with  the  Buondelmonti,  and  the  rest,  forming  a 
Ghibelline  party,  with  the  Amadei  at  its  head.  And 
thus  were  those  names  of  evil  omen  imported  into 
Florence,  where  they  became  the  rallying  cries  in  a 
struggle  which  century  after  century  deluged  the  city 
with  blood,  led  to  the  exile  of  the  greatest  of  her 


HISTORY.  17 

children,   and   made    her   an   easy  prey  to  foreign 
powers.* 

By  the  middle  of  the  thirteenth  century  Florence, 
Pisa,  Siena,  Arezzo,  and  Pistoia  were  firmly  estab- 
lished as  independent  communes,  and  Florence  had 
engaged  in  numerous  wars,  directed  chiefly  against 
her  neighbors,  the  Sienese,  with  whom,  however,  a 
treaty  of  peace  was  signed  in  1235.  In  1248  the 
Emperor  Frederick  II.,  who  was  carrying  on  a  fierce 
struggle  with  Pope  Innocent  IV.,  treacherously  in- 
cited the  GhibeUine  leaders — the  Uberti — to  rise, 
hoping  to  strengthen  the  Imperialists  in  Italy  by 
stirring  up  party  feuds.  The  Ghibellines  were  suc- 
cessful, and  the  Guelphs  driven  out,  some  taking 
refuge  in  the  upper  Valdamo  and  others  intrenching 
themselves  in  the  fortress  of  Capraia  in  the  lower 
Valdamo,  where  the  Ghibellines,  aided  by  reinforce- 
ments sent  by  the  Emperor,  attacked  and  eventually 
overcame  them.  The  Ghibellines,  left  in  undisputed 
power,  carried  things  with  so  high  a  hand  that  before 
long  popular  discontent  broke  out.  As  soon  as  the 
news  of  their  discomfiture  at  Montevarchi,  on  Octo- 
ber 20,  1250,  reached  Florence  the  people  assembled, 
and  meeting  with  little  or  no  resistance,  proceeded  to 

*  Guelph  was  derived  from  Welf,  and  GhibeUine  from  Wai- 
blingen,  a  castle  belonging  to  the  Emperor  Conrad.  They  are 
said  to  have  been  first  used  in  the  battle  of  Weinsberg  in  1140,  in  a 
struggle  between  the  Welfs  of  Altdorf  and  the  imperial  line  of 
Hohenstaufen. 


18  FLORENCK 

establish  a  new  form  of  Government.  Thirty-sU 
Caporali  di  Popolo — six  for  each  of  the  six  wards  of 
the  city — ^were  appointed ;  a  Capitano  del  Popolo  to 
represent  the  people,  as  the  Podesta*  became  from 
henceforth  more  and  more  the  accredited  representa- 
tive of  the  nobles,  and,  like  him,  appointed  for  but 
one  year,  and,  to  balance  these  two  opposing  parties 
in  the  Government,  twelve  Amiana  (elders)  del  Popolo, 
two  from  each  ward.  The  population  was  formed 
into  a  military  organization  imder  the  command  of 
the  Capitano,  the  city  being  divided  into  twenty 
armed  companies,  each  with  its  banner  and  Gonfa- 
loniere  ;  and  the  ringing  of  the  bell  hung  in  the  Tower 
of  the  Lion,  by  the  Capitano,  was  to  be  the  signal  for 
the  people  to  assemble.  This  civil  and  military  form 
of  Government,  so  rapidly  and  quietly  constructed 
and  adopted  by  the  Florentine  people,  was  the  foun- 
dation upon  which  was  built  the  liberty  and  strength 
of  the  Republic. 

The  Ghibellines  were  cowed  for  the  nonce,  and  the 
exiled  Guelphs  returned.  For  ten  years  the  new 
Government  lasted — a  period  of  great  prosperity,  as 
witnessed  by  her  rapid  growth  in  wealth  and  power. 

*  The  oflBce  of  Podesti  was  created  in  the  year  1207,  The 
city  was  then  governed  by  six  consuls  and  a  Senate,  and  with  a 
view  to  obtaining  impartiality  in  the  administration  of  jostice  it 
was  determined  to  appoint  a  "foreigner" — i.e.,  some  one  from 
another  city — ^to  preside  over  the  civil  and  criminal  courts  for  the 
space  of  one  year,  with  the  title  of  Podesti,  and  full  authority  to 
convict,  pass  sentences,  and  execute  judgments. 


HISTOEY.  19 

In  1252  the  gold  florin  was  first  struck.     Then  came 

the  disastrous  battle  of  Montaperti — in  September, 

1260 — when  the  Guelphs  were  utterly  defeated  by 

an  army  of  Ghibellines  collected  at  Siena  by  Fari- 

nata  degli  Uberti.     So  great  was  the  slaughter  that 

Dante  speaks  of  it  as  having  dyed  the  waters  of  the 

Arbia  red. 

"  Che  fece  1' Arbia  colorata  in  rosso." 

— Inferno,  Canto  x. 

Florence  came  near  paying  with  her  very  exist- 
ence on  that  occasion  for  the  discord  she  had  let  loose 
among  her  children,  and  to  Farinata  degli  Uberti  is 
due  the  honor  of  having  saved  her  from  total  destruc- 
tion, for  when  at  the  conference  of  the  Ghibelline 
leaders,  which  took  place  at  Empoli  after  the  battle, 
it  was  suggested  to  raze  the  turbulent  city  to  the 
ground,  he  alone  of  all  present  interposed  in  her  be- 
half, and  to  such  purpose  that  the  infamous  project 
was  abandoned. 

Another  brief  period  of  peace  ensued,  the  people, 
excluded  by  the  Ghibellines  from  all  participation  in 
public  affairs,  devoted  their  surplus  energies  to  the 
extension  of  trade,  and  commerce  received  so  mar- 
vellous an  impetus  that  the  foundations  were  laid  of 
many  great  private  fortunes,  and  the  commonwealth 
increased  enormously  in  wealth  and  importance. 
Manfred,  the  friend  and  ally  of  the  Ghibellines,  hav- 
ing been  defeated  and  slain  in  February,  1266,  the 
Guelphs  began  to  reassert  themselves,  and  by  the 


20  FLORENCE 

following  November  had  managed  to  gain  control  of 
the  city,  from  whence  they  sallied  forth  from  time  to 
time  on  victorious  expeditions,  directed  against  the 
surrounding  cities,  towns,  and  villages,  where  Ghib- 
ellines  were  known  to  have  taken  refuge. 

In  October,  1278,  however,  both  parties  having 
grown  weary  of  strife.  Pope  Nicholas  HI.  was  re- 
quested to  mediate  between  them,  and  accordingly 
dispatched  Cardinal  Latino  to  represent  him,  with 
the  result  that  peace  was  concluded,  and  from  hence- 
forth the  name  of  Ghibelline  is  but  little  heard  in  the 
annals  of  Florence.  Then  began  a  period  of  extra- 
ordinary prosperity  ;  arts  and  industries  flourished  to 
a  surprising  extent,  and  Florence  took  the  first  place 
among  all  the  Tuscan  communes.  Florentine  mer- 
chants enjoyed  the  highest  reputation  for  integrity 
throughout  not  only  Italy,  but  the  entire  world. 
Magnificent  buildings  were  erected  by  order  of  the 
conmiune,  and  also  by  private  enterprise,  while  archi- 
tecture, literature,  and  art  were  represented  by  such 
men  as  Arnolfo  di  Cambio,  Dante,  and  Cimabue. 
After  the  death  of  Frederick  II.,  in  December,  1250, 
an  interregnum  had  occurred  in  the  Imperial  succes- 
sion, and  when,  in  1281,  Rudolph  of  Hapsburgh  en- 
deavored to  recall  the  Tuscan  communes  to  their  alle- 
giance, it  was  foimd  that  they  had  grown  completely 
beyond  the  Imperial  control,  while  the  Guelph  party 
being  pre-eminent,  the  support  of  the  Pope  could  be 
relied  upon. 


■t^'^fy-^.' 


20  n 


f„rtlj  t  heard  m  the 


I  sQcoes- 


a 

r    Portrait  of  Dante  from  the  Fresco  in 

the  "Bargello 
Giotto 


HISTORY.  *         21 

In  1282  an  important  change  was  made  in  the  form 
of  government.  Among  other  means  taken  by  Car- 
dinal Latino  to  establish  a  lasting  peace  between  the 
factions  had  been  the  substitution  of  a  body  com- 
posed of  fourteen  citizens — eight  Guelphs  and  six 
Ghibellines — for  the  Anziani.  It  was  now  enacted 
that  Priori  delle  Arti  should  be  selected,  one  by  each 
guild,  to  be  its  president,  and  that  three  of  these,  that 
is,  one  from  each  of  the  three  powerful  Guilds  of  the 
CaUmala,  the  money-changers,  and  the  wooUen-cloth 
merchants,  should  be  appointed  to  be  at  the  head  of 
the  Government.  Before  long  the  "  fourteen  "  were 
abolished  altogether  and  the  priors  increased  to  the 
number  of  six.  The  council  thus  formed  was  the 
nucleus  of  the  celebrated  body  of  the  Signoria,  the 
office  of  Gonfaloniere  being  created  in  1293. 
.  In  1289  a  great  battle  was  fought  at  Campaldino, 
in  which  Florence  and  the  Guelph  Government 
achieved  a  signal  victory  over  the  Aretines,  aided  by 
exUed  Ghibellines.  Dante,  theli  about  twenty-four, 
took  part  in  this  battle,  and  Vieri  de'  Cerchi  behaved 
with  great  gallantry. 

The  peace  which  now  seemed  to  be  so  firmly  es- 
tablished was,  however,  destined  to  be  of  short  dura- 
tion, and  before  long  the  old  quarrel  broke  out  with 
increased  violence  under  new  party  names. 

The  most  powerful  family  of  Pistoia  was  at  this 
time  the  Cancellieri,  but  these  numerous  descendants 
of  a  common  ancestor,  who  had  had  two  wives,  had 


22         '  FLORENCE. 

quarrelled  among  themselves.  The  whole  city  was 
divided,  those  espousing  one  side  taking  the  name  of 
Bianchij  after  one  wife,  and  the  others  styling  them- 
selves Neri. 

In  1300  Florence,  thinking  to  mend  matters,  took 
the  government  of  the  distracted  city  into  her  own 
hands,  and  conceived  the  unfortunate  idea  of  banish- 
ing the  chiefs  of  both  factions  to  Florence,  with  the 
result  that  all  the  friends  and  connections  of  the  Bian- 
chij  with  Vieri  de'  Cerchi  at  their  head,  at  once  es- 
poused their  cause,  while  the  Neri  had  as  powerful 
a  following,  with  Corso  Donati  for  their  leader.  Thus 
was  Florence  once  more  torn  by  internal  discord, 
the  old  Guelph  party  siding  for  the  most  part  with 
the  Neri,  and  the  Ghibellines  with  the  Bianchi.  The 
former,  fearing  that  the  others  were  getting  things  too 
much  into  their  own  hands,  determined  to  apply  to 
Pope  Boniface  VUI.  to  settle  the  dispute.  He  ac- 
cordingly summoned  Vieri  de'  Cerchi  to  Rome,  coun- 
selled him  to  become  reconciled  with  his  enemies — 
Messer  Corso  Donati  in  particular — and  promised 
him  his  favor  and  protection  if  he  would  do  so.  But 
Vieri  would  have  none  of  it,  declared  that  he  was  not 
at  enmity  with  anyone,  and  returned  to  Florence, 
leaving  the  Pope  greatly  incensed  against  him  and 
his  party.  The  so-called  "  Ordinances  of  Justice," 
instituted  in  1293  by  Giano  della  Bella,  a  powerful 
Guelph  leader,  only  served  to  arouse  opposition  and 
discontent,  being  drastic  measures  directed  chiefly 


HISTOKY.  23 

against  the  nobles  of  whatever  party.  The  office  of 
Gonfaloniere  was  created  at  the  same  time,  as  one  of 
the  means  of  enforcing  the  "  ordinances." 

A  skirmish  that  occurred  during  the  popular  fes- 
tivities on  May  Day,  1300,  between  the  youths  of 
both  factions,  set  the  whole  city  in  an  uproar.  The 
Guelphs  again  applied  to  the  Pope  for  aid,  and  Car- 
dinal Acquasparta  was  sent  to  Florence  in  the  quaUty 
of  Papal  Legate.  In  June,  as  the  city  guilds  were 
going  in  procession,  headed  by  their  consuls,  to  the 
church  of  San  Giovanni, — i-t  being  the  eve  of  the  fes- 
tival of  that  saint, — a  party  of  nobles  belonging  to 
the  Neri  suddenly  attacked  them,  shouting,  "  We  are 
the  ones  who  gained  the  victory  at  Campaldino,  and 
you  are  keeping  us  out  of  all  the  offices  and  emolu- 
ments of  our  city  !"  In  order  to  quell  the  disturbances 
the  Priors — Dante  being  one  at  that  time — decided 
to  banish  for  a  certain  period  some  of  the  leaders  of 
each  party.  The  Bianchi  left  at  once,  but  the  Neri 
resisted,  and  a  plot  was  formed,  with  the  connivance 
of  the  Legate,  to  introduce  an  armed  force  from  Lucca 
into  the  city.  The  Signory,  however,  getting  wind 
of  it,  put  a  stop  to  the  whole  thing,  and  forced  the 
conspirators  to  leave.  Whereupon  the  Legate,  seeing 
no  hope  of  establishing  certaiu  "  reforms  "  in  the  gov- 
ernment of  the  Republic,  upon  which  he  had  set  his 
heart,  departed  in  dudgeon,  and  Florence  was  placed 
under  a  Papal  interdict. 

The  Emperor  Henry  VII.  died  in  1313,  but  not- 


24  FLORENCK 

withstanding  this  severe  blow  the  Ghibelline  party, 
under  Uguccione  dell'  Fagginola,  won  the  battle  of 
Montecatini  against  the  Florentines  in  1315,  and 
were  again  victorious  in  1325  at  Altopascio,  under 
the  notorious  Castruccio  Castracane  of  Lucca. 

In  1342  the  Florentines,  feeling  that  affairs  were  in 
a  very  bad  way  indeed  in  their  city,  invited  Gaul- 
thier  de  Brienne — styled  Duke  of  Athens  by  reason 
of  some  shadowy  claim  to  that  title — to  hold  the  office 
of  Captain  and  Protector  of  the  People  for  one  year, 
and  also  to  be  Captain-General.  The  duke  was  given 
the  same  salary,  privileges,  and  authority  as  his  pre- 
decessor, but  showed  himself  to  be  such  a  tyrant  and 
despot  that  before  many  weeks  had  elapsed  the 
Florentines  were  anxious  to  be  rid  of  him.  This, 
however,  proved  no  easy  matter,  and  it  was  not  until 
he  had  held  office  nearly  a  year  and  a  number  of 
plots  against  his  life  had  been  defeated  that  he  and 
his  supporters  were  finally  driven  out. 

The  absence  of  any  one  holding  supreme  authority 
led  to  a  renewal  of  popular  agitation,  and  the  form  of 
government  was  continually  changing,  first  the  peo- 
ple, and  then  the  nobles  getting  the  upper  hand — the 
Grandi  and  the  Popolani,  or  the  Pqpolo  grasso  and 
the  popoh  minuto. 

In  the  midst  of  all  these  troubles  a  terrible  scourge 
fell  upon  Florence.  In  1348  the  plague  coming  from 
the  East  ravaged  the  city,  destroying,  according  to 
Machiavelli,  a  hundred  thousand  persons,  and  indi- 


HISTORY.  25 

rectly  inspiring  Boccaccio  with  a  work  which  is  gen- 
erally looked  upon  as  his  masterpiece.  A  body  called 
the  "  Capitani  di  Parte  Guelfa  "  had  been  instituted 
in  1267,  and  had  gradually  come  to  wield  an  almost 
unlimited  power,  two  leading  families,  the  Albizzi 
and  the  Ricci,  being  rivals  for  the  foremost  places  in 
it ;  and  we  find  Salvestro  de'  Medici  now  appearing 
in  the  office  of  Gonfalonier,  and  as  the  favorite  and 
leader  of  the  people. 

By  the  spring  of  1378  the  tyranny  of  the  rulers 
had  become  intolerable,  the  popular  discontent  waxed 
greater  and  greater,  finally  culminating  in  the  out- 
break termed  the  "  Ciompi  Revolution,"  in  allusion  to 
the  ciompi — wooden  shoes — worn  by  the  artisans  who 
took  part  in  it.  Before  the  close  of  July  the  people  had 
gained  their  ends.  Michele  di  Lando,  a  wool  comber, 
who  for  about  the  space  of  twenty-four  hours  had 
absolute  control  of  the  Government,  used  his  authority 
to  hold  an  election  of  members  for  a  new  Signory, 
and  enforce  other  measures  by  which  order  was  re- 
stored. 

The  fifty  years  that  elapsed  between  these  events 
and  the  rise  of  the  Medici  family  to  power  were  at 
once  stormy  and  brilliant.  When  the  inevitable  re- 
action against  the  popular  government  came,  the  Al- 
bizzi succeeded  in  obtaining  the  ascendency,  and  in 
1382  their  long  oligarchical  government  began. 
There  was,  as  a  matter  of  course,  plenty  of  civil 
strife,  but  with  it  all  Florence  succeeded  in  carrying 


26  FLORENCE. 

on  foreign  wars  of  aggression,  in  enlarging  her  terri- 
tory, and  in  increasing  her  commerce.  The  prevail- 
ing system  of  taxation  was,  however,  a  cause  of  great 
discontent,  especially  among  the  lower  classes,  on 
whom  it  bore  most  heavily.  When  at  last,  through 
the  efforts  of  Giovanni  de'Medici,  a  reform  was  effected 
in  1427  the  gratitude  of  the  people  knew  no  boimds, 
and  the  foundation  was  laid  of  that  influence  and 
popularity  upon  which  the  Medici  family  afterwards 
built  up  their  enormous  power. 

From  the  death  of  Giovanni,  which  occurred  in 
February,  1429,  up  to  within  a  few  years  of  the  fall 
of  the  Republic — a  period  covering  about  a  himdred 
years — the  history  of  Florence  is  practically  the  his- 
tory of  the  Medici  family,  which  I  am  about  to  trace 
from  its  origin  to  the  height  of  its  greatness,  and  its 
final  decline. 


THE  MEDICL  27 


CHAPTER   II. 

THE   MEDICI. 

The  origin  of  the  Medici  is  purely  Florentine.  As 
early  as  1215  we  find  a  certain  Buonagiunta  de' 
Medici  appearing  as  one  of  the  councillors,  and  the 
name  constantly  reappears  in  the  annals  of  that  early 
period.  The  first,  however,  to  occupy  a  prominent 
place  in  history,  and  rise  high  enough  above  the 
level  of  his  fellow-citizens  to  foreshadow  that  this 
merchant  family  was  destined  to  give  Tuscany  her 
future  sovereigns,  was  Giovanni  di  Bicci  de'  Medici, 
whose  election  in  1421  to  the  office  of  Gonfaloniere, 
while  it  caused  much  satisfaction  among  the  people, 
did  not  fail  to  arouse  great  uneasiness  among  the 
rulers.  Niccolo  da  Uzzano  pointed  out  clearly  to  his 
associates  the  danger  of  thus  placing  power  in  the 
hands  of  one  who  not  only  came  from  a  prominent 
and  ambitious  family,  but  himself  possessed  wealth 
and  mental  attainments  far  above  the  ordinary.  Gio- 
vanni was,  however,  far  too  sagacious  a  man  to  en- 
danger his  position  by  any  overt  act.  He  kept  his 
ambition  in  check,  devoted  himself  to  the  accumulation 
of  enormous  wealth,  effected  a  reform  in  the  method 
of  taxation — ^being  the  author  of  the  famous  Catasta 


28  FLOKENCE. 

— and  died,  deeply  regretted  by  all  classes,  on  the 
28th  of  February,  1428. 

Machiavelli  has  left  a  portrait  of  him  which  all 
writers  of  history  have  accepted.  He  was  very 
charitable,  seeking  out  the  poor  in  order  to  relieve 
them.  Affable  to  all  men,  he  was  never  a  candidate 
for  posts  of  honor,  and  yet  they  were  showered  upon 
him.  He  was  only  to  be  seen  at  the  Government 
palace  at  such  times  when  the  public  weal  demanded 
his  presence.  Of  a  pacific  disposition,  he  did  all  in 
his  power  to  avoid  war.  Careful  of  the  public  money, 
his  main  object  was  to  increase  the  revenues  of  the 
State.  In  public  oflEice  he  distinguished  himself  by 
his  benevolence.  Without  being  absolutely  eloquent, 
he  was  gifted  with  rare  intelligence.  Sedate  and  even 
melancholy  in  appearance,  he  was  amiable  and  cheer- 
ful in  his  relations  with  others.  Bom  in  1360,  he 
was  twice  elected  Prior,  once  Gonfaloniere,  and  once 
a  member  of  the  War  Council  of  Ten.  He  was  mar- 
ried to  Piccarda  Bueri,  by  whom  he  had  two  sons, 
Cosimo  and  Lorenzo.  He  lived  to  see  these  two  sons 
grow  up  and  develop  habits  of  great  activity,  both 
mental  and  physical,  and  to  find  that,  while  liberal 
and  generous,  they  sought  to  increase  the  family  in- 
heritance and  make  it  useful  to  the  State. 

At  his  death  Giovanni  was  interred  in  the  sacristy 
of  the  Basilica  of  San  Lorenzo,  which  he  had  em- 
ployed Brunelleschi  to  restore  at  his  expense.  He 
had  not,  however,  the  satisfaction  of  witnessing  the 


THE  MEDICI.  29 

completion  of  this  edifice,  which  was  to  be  the  pan- 
theon of  his  family,  though  the  work  was  carried  on 
by  his  two  sons.  His  tomb  is  situated  in  the  centre 
of  the  Sagrestia  Vecchia,  where,  five  years  later,  his 
wife  was  laid  beside  him.  It  is  only  after  looking 
through  all  the  original  correspondence  of  these  mer- 
chant princes,  as  I  have  done,  that  one  can  appre- 
ciate their  lofty  intellect,  their  flexibility,  and  varied 
attainments.  There  was  nothing  doing  in  their  day 
in  which  they  had  not  some  share,  or  which  came  for- 
eign to  them,  whether  war,  public  office,  diplomacy, 
politics,  art,  or  literature ;  and,  above  all,  they  were  en- 
dowed— gifted  politicians  that  they  were — with  pecu- 
liar affability  towards  men  of  low  degree,  did  they 
but  possess  any  real  merit. 

Warmth  of  heart  and  the  power  to  kindle  enthu- 
siasm in  others  were  their  special  attributes,  as  may 
be  gathered  from  passages  in  some  of  the  letters  still 
preserved  in  the  "  Archivio  di  Stato "  of  Florence, 
under  the  title  "  Lettere  Innanzi  il  Principato." 

COSIMO  THE  ELDER, 

During  his  father's  lifetime  Cosimo  had  taken  part 
in  public  aff"airs  while  still  engaged  in  the  business  of 
his  house,  and  as  he  had  a  reputation  for  unusual  in- 
telligence, combined  with  rare  prudence,  he  was  on 
several  occasions  selected  to  undertake  the  most  deli- 
cate missions,  as,  for  instance,  when  he  represented 
the  Republic  of  Florence  at  the  Council  ot  Constance, 


30  FLORENCR 

when  the  claims  of  Baldassare  Cossa — John  XXIII. — 
to  the  Papacy  were  set  aside.  There  is  a  curious  in- 
cident in  this  connection  which  testifies  to  the  proud 
attitude  assumed  by  the  Republic  towards  the  great 
powers,  including  the  greatest  of  them  all — the 
Papacy.  After  his  deposal  by  the  Council,  Cossa  fled 
in  disguise — it  is  said  accompanied  by  Cosimo — ^but 
having  been  discovered  and  taken,  he  was  confined 
by  order  of  the  Council,  in  Heidelberg  Castle,  where 
he  would  no  doubt  have  remained  for  the  rest  of  his 
life  had  he  not  paid  a  large  sum  of  money  as  a  ran- 
som and  promised  to  do  homage  to  his  rival  on  his 
knees.  This  ceremony  took  place  in  Florence  with 
much  pomp  and  circumstance.  Martin  V.  then  re- 
storing him  to  favor,  he  was  appointed  Cardinal- 
Bishop  of  Frascati  and  permitted  to  pass  the  brief 
remainder  of  his  days  in  peace  at  Florence,  where 
his  death  occurred  in  January,  1418.  Donatello  and 
Michelozzo  Michelozzi  were  instructed  to  erect  a  tomb 
worthy  of  one  who  had  been  "  Pope  and  prisoner  of 
a  Pope."  A  splendid  monimient  was  accordingly 
raised,  which  may  still  be  seen,  in  the  Baptistery  of 
San  Giovanni,  on  the  right  of  the  high  altar.  But 
the  inscription  provoked  the  wrath  of  Pope  Martin, 
who  had  never  quite  forgiven  the  Florentines  for  a 
doggerel  about  himself  which  the  little  boys  had 
shouted  through  the  streets  on  the  occasion  of  his  last 
visit,  and  he  imperiously  demanded  that  the  words 
"  quondam  papa "  should  be  erased,  to  which  the 


THE  MEDICI.  31 

Signory  returned  the  disdainful  reply  :  "  Quod  scripsi 
scripsi."  It  is  sometimes  alleged  that  Pope  John,  out 
of  gratitude  for  the  many  services  rendered  him  by 
Giovanni  and  Cosimo  de'  Medici,  bequeathed  them 
large  sums  at  his  death,  but  this  has  been  disproved 
by  the  pubUcation  of  the  Medicean  Archives,  among 
which  are  documents  showing  that  the  PontiflE"  actually 
died  in  debt  to  the  house  of  Medici.* 

Giovanni  lived  long  enough  to  initiate  his  sons  into 
public  life,  but  Cosimo  ranked  higher  than  his  father, 
and  laid  the  foundation  of  the  fame  of  his  family. 
He  married  the  daughter  of  Count  Bardi,  and  when 
he  became  head  of  the  house  his  influence  and  credit 
increased  every  day.  He  did  not  exercise  any  offi- 
cial authority  in  the  strict  sense  of  the  term,  but  that 
moral  supremacy,  to  which  the  public  gave  voluntary 
adhesion,  and  which  became  the  hereditary  privilege 
of  this  illustrious  family,  was  in  his  case  very  marked. 

The  Government  at  that  time  consisted  of  a  Coun- 
cil of  Priors,  presided  over  by  a  Gonfaloniere,  appointed 
for  a  period  of  only  two  months,  in  order  that  power 
might  not  remain  permanently  in  the  hands  of  any 
one  party.  This  precaution  against  tyranny  was 
rendered  useless,  if  not  by  the  devices  of  the  Medici, 
at  all  events  by  the  extraordinary  influence  which 
they  exercised  over  the  masses.     They  had  so  multi- 

*  See  Archivio  Storico  Italiano.  (Vol.  iv.,  page  433,  Docu- 
menti,  i.,  ii.,  and  iii.) — Napier's  Florentine  Hist. 


82  FLORENCE. 

plied  their  good  deeds,  had  made  such  an  intelligent 
use  of  their  wealth,  and  had  managed  their  patronage 
so  well,  that  every  one  felt  his  hands  to  be  tied,  and 
iinconsciously,  perhaps,  surrendered  at  discretion. 
With  this  class  the  public  weal  was  identified  with 
the  private  interests  of  the  Medici.  If  at  the  elec- 
tions Cosimo,  Lorenzo,  and  their  children,  nephews, 
and  more  distant  relatives  did  not  gain  the  vote  for 
themselves,  partisans  of  their  family  were  returned. 
In  course  of  time  a  powerful  party  of  the  Florentines 
came  to  look  upon  the  Medici  as  the  natural  deposi- 
taries of  power,  as  a  nursery  garden  of  politicians 
indispensable  to  the  public  welfare. 

It  will  easily  be  understood  that  they  had  made 
many  enemies,  and  Rinaldo  degli  Albizzi,  who  was 
leader  of  the  opposite  faction,  contrived  in  the  autumn 
of  1433  to  obtain  control  of  the  Signory  about  enter- 
ing into  office,  so  that  on  September  7th  Cosimo  was 
cited  to  appear  before  that  body  at  the  palace.  Act- 
ing against  the  advice  of  his  friends  he  obeyed  the 
summons,  and  was  forthwith  consigned  to  a  prison 
within  the  walls  of  that  building. 

The  historian  who  resides  at  Florence,  and  the 
man  of  the  world  who  always  likes  to  compare  monu- 
ments with  history,  and  to  see  if  documents  tally  with 
oral  statements,  may  still  picture  to  themselves,  by 
visiting  in  the  tower  of  the  Old  Palace  the  prison 
called  the  Alberghettino,  the  scene  which  was  enacted 
there  in  1433,  when  Cosimo,  placed  xmder  the  charge 


THE  MEDICL  33 

of  Federico  Malvolti,  exchanged  the  splendor  of  his 
father's  palace  for  the  gloomy  and  confined  residence 
to  which  he  was  consigned  by  his  enemies.  Machia- 
velli  says  that,  for  fear  of  being  poisoned,  the  son  of 
Giovanni,  who  was  soon  to  be  called  the  "  Father  of 
his  Country,"  refused  all  food  for  four  days,  and  sub- 
sisted on  a  crust  of  bread. 

He  was  shortly  afterwards  banished,  taking  refuge 
first  at  Padua  and  afterwards  at  Venice.  He  was 
not  the  only  victim  of  the  Signory,  his  brother 
Lorenzo,  with  all  the  other  Medici  and  their  prin- 
cipal partisans,  being  likewise  obliged  to  leave  Flor- 
ence. 

Cosimo  was  at  that  time  forty-six  years  of  age,  and 
we  know  that  during  his  exile  he  interested  himself 
in  art,  science,  and  literature,  and  that  while  at 
Venice  he  applied  to  some  of  the  eminent  artists  who 
were  destined  to  become  illustrious  in  his  service  for 
designs  for  the  buildings  which  he  purposed  some  day 
to  erect.  It  was  evident  that  in  exiling  him  the  Flor* 
entines  wished  to  get  rid  of  a  citizen  whom  they 
deemed  too  powerful,  and  that,  as  in  the  case  of 
Aristides,  they  were  tired  of  hearing  him  called  the 
Just.  This  was  only  a  prudent  step,  no  doubt,  on 
the  part  of  those  who  were  anxious  to  preserve  the 
Republican  form  of  government ;  but  the  people  are 
always  ready  to  accept  a  certain  degree  of  servitude, 
and  are  easily  aroused  to  enthusiasm  for  those  who 
seem  born  to  command.     Before  a  year  had  elapsed 


84  FLORENCK 

they  began  to  murmur  and  demand  the  recall  of 
Cosimo,  who  had  not  conspired  against  his  coimtry, 
and  who,  while  in  exile,  still  sought  to  embellish  and 
to  render  it  more  prosperous.  Pope  Eugenius,  then 
at  Florence,  threw  the  weight  of  his  influence  in  with 
the  Medician  party,  and  by  the  force  of  the  reaction 
— which  is  one  of  the  characteristic  features  of  popu- 
lar government — Cosimo  waa  recalled.  Then  was 
witnessed  the  singular  spectacle  of  a  whole  city  going 
out  to  greet  one  who  was  neither  a  conqueror  nor  a 
chosen  ruler,  but  merely  a  man  who  had  peacefully 
exercised  a  constant  influence,  and  whose  moral  au- 
thority, not  guarded  by  any  decree  or  law,  was  as 
efi"ectual  as  any  recognized  and  legal  power. 

From  this  time  forth  the  Republic  ceased  to  exist 
in  reality,  though  not  in  name,  for  that  was  main- 
tained for  a  long  time,  Cosimo  being  styled  the  Father 
of  his  Country ;  but  the  Medici  dynasty  was  prac- 
tically established,  and  the  people  paid  willing  obei- 
sance to  a  family  whose  "  manifest  destiny  "  was  so 
plainly  indicated.  The  date  of  their  return  (1434) 
marks  virtually  the  end  of  the  RepubUcan  epoch. 

Cosimo  was  then  in  his  prime,  and  he  lived  for 
thirty  years  after  his  return  from  exile.  Reading 
with  care  the  history  of  Florence,  it  will  be  seen  that 
these  thirty  years  were  the  most  prolific  in  regard  to 
intellectual  culture  and  the  development  of  art. 
Lorenzo  the  Magnificent  reaped  the  harvest,  but  his- 
tory must  ascribe  the  merit  of  it  to  Cosimo  the  Elder. 


THE  MEDICI.  86 

The  mere  recollection  of  this  memorable  epoch  makes 
the  heart  beat  faster,  and  the  hand  which  would  fain 
depict  it  cannot  but  tremble.  One  must  go  back  to 
the  days  of  Pericles  to  find  so  lofty  a  flight  in  every 
branch  of  literature,  science,  and  art.  Countless 
books  have  been  written  about  the  Renaissance,  and 
no  effort  has  been  spared  to  trace  out  its  origins,  and 
to  show  by  what  combination  of  circumstances  this 
sublime  efflorescence  of  human  genius  was  brought 
about.  There  are  indeed  apparent  and  immediate 
causes,  but  the  movement  had  been  long  in  prepara- 
tion, and  the  two  preceding  centuries  remarkably  rich 
in  artistic  productions. 

Cosimo,  besides  those  literary  tastes  which  led  him 
to  gather  around  him  the  greatest  thinkers,  philoso- 
phers, and  poets  of  his  day,  also  took  a  strong  interest 
in  architecture,  and  had  a  practical  knowledge  of  art ; 
it  is  to  him  that  we  owe  San  Lorenzo,  the  church  and 
convent  of  St.  Mark,  the  monastery  of  San  Verdiana, 
the  monastery  of  San  Gerolamo  upon  the  heights  of 
Fiesole,  where  the  Gerolamite  hermits  assembled, 
until  it  was  suppressed  by  Clement  IX.,  and  the  abbey 
of  San  Bartolomeo  and  San  Romolo  for  the  canons  of 
the  Lateran.  At  Mugello,  his  favorite  residence  until 
Careggi  was  built,  he  reconstructed  from  its  very 
foundations  the  convent  of  Bosco  a  Prati,  and  in  each 
of  these  religious  houses  he  took  care  that  there  was 
a  Ubrary  of  MSS.  Countless  was  the  number  of 
private  chapels  built  at  his  expense,   such  as  the 


86  FLORENCE. 

Noviziato  at  Santa  Croce ;  and  those  in  the  convent 
of  Agnoli  belonging  to  the  Camalduli  Fathers ;  in  the 
church  of  the  Servi ;  and  that  of  San  Miniato  al 
Monte.  When  to  these  are  added  the  gift  of  all  the 
ornaments,  furniture,  and  utensils  necessary  for  cele- 
brating public  worship,  it  will  be  seen  what  immense 
wealth  the  house  of  Medici  must  have  possessed. 

Giovanni  himself  lived  in  great  state,  but  his  son 
outdid  him  in  splendor.  San  Tommaso  in  Mercato, 
the  first  residence  of  the  Medici,  was  abandoned  for 
the  splendid  palace  in  the  Via  Larga.  During  his 
lifetime  he  had  four  summer  residences  in  the  neigh- 
borhood of  Florence  :  Careggi,  which  still  exists,  Fie- 
sole,  Cafaggiuolo,  and  Trebbio.  He  kept  up  the  state 
of  a  prince  rather  than  of  a  private  individual,  and 
his  charities  were  far  reaching,  for  he  founded  an 
asylum  at  Jerusalem  for  needy  pilgrims,  and  em- 
ployed his  leisure  time  while  exiled  at  Venice  in 
founding  a  library  of  MSS.  in  the  monastery  of  the 
canons  of  San  Giorgio. 

All  the  subsequent  doings  of  the  Medici  are  well 
known,  and  I  have  had  in  my  hand  the  account-books 
of  the  expenses  of  all  these  buildings ;  these  historic 
docimients,  which  are  now  of  great  value,  being  pre- 
served in  the  State  archives  of  Florence.  They  are 
called  the  "  Libro  di  Ragione,"  and  it  was  in  them 
that  the  steward  kept  a  debtor  and  creditor  account 
of  all  that  he  paid  and  received.  During  the  life- 
time of  Giovanni  alone  the  expenditure  under  this 


THE  MEDICI.  87 

head  amounted  to  five  hundred  thousand  gold  crowns, 
and  even  this  enormous  sum  did  not  make  any  ap- 
preciable difference  in  the  ever-growing  fortune  of 
the  house.  It  will,  of  course,  be  well  understood  that 
Giovanni  himself,  the  founder  of  the  house,  did  not 
amass  all  this  wealth,  his  inheritance  from  his  father 
being  a  very  considerable  one ;  but  his  business  as  a 
money-changer,  carried  on  upon  an  immense  scale, 
had  increased  it  very  much.  As  far  back  as  the 
fourteenth  century  the  Medici  had  sixteen  counting- 
houses  in  different  cities  of  Europe,  and  they  had  also 
contracted  for  the  taxes  and  excise  of  the  Republic, 
so  that  a  very  large  profit  accrued  from  all  these 
transactions,  conducted  with  a  scrupulous  honesty 
which  had  established  their  credit  upon  very  solid 
foundations.  Moreover,  they  carried  on  a  banking 
business,  and  it  was  to  these  operations — not  always 
very  profitable,  because  they  sometimes  lent  money 
to  those  of  their  fellow-citizens  who  could  not  pay 
the  interest,  or  even  what  they  had  borrowed — that 
they  owed  their  immense  popularity.  This  generosity 
may,  however,  not  have  been  whoUy  disinterested, 
and  several  contemporary  writers,  Varchi  among 
them,  have  denounced  their  liberality  as  being  all  a 
sham,  and  have  said  that  Giovanni  foimded  the  influ- 
ence of  his  family  upon  corruption,  and  bought  his 
way  to  supreme  power. 

Be  this  as  it  may,  Giovanni  and  his  two  sons  be- 
came bankers  to  kings,  and  lent  money  to  sovereigns 


88  FLORENCE 

who  sought  to  possess  themselves  of  dominion.  Ed- 
ward IV.  always  said  that  it  was  thanks  to  them  that 
he  wore  the  crown  of  England. 

For  such  a  man  as  Cosimo,  with  children  worthy 
of  himself — animated  by  a  liberal  and  generous  spirit, 
a  warm-hearted  and  intelligent  patron  of  arts,  science, 
and  letters,  circumspect  and  daring  by  turn,  as  occa- 
sion requires — there  need  be  no  limit  to  success.  He 
possessed,  moreover,  that  most  powerful  of  all  engines 
for  travelling  along  the  road  to  power — boundless 
wealth.  The  name  of  Medici,  like  that  of  Maecenas, 
became  in  future  ages  the  synonym  for  an  enlightened 
patron  of  literature;  and  if  this  family  did  not  absolutely 
initiate  the  extraordinary  movement  which,  starting 
from  Florence,  spread  throughout  Italy,  they  sup- 
ported it  with  such  ardor  and  profound  conviction 
that  they  gave  their  name  to  the  century,  so  that  one 
now  speaks  of  the  "  age  of  the  Medici "  as  of  the 
"  age  of  Pericles." 

Cosimo,  in  his  position,  might,  had  he  so  desired, 
have  espoused  some  Italian  princess,  or  even  the 
daughter  of  a  sovereign  house ;  but  he  had  the  tact 
to  marry  a  Florentine,  the  daughter  of  Coimt  Bardi  ; 
and  he  adopted  the  same  course  with  his  children, 
marrying  his  eldest  son  Piero  to  Lucrezia  Tomabuoni, 
and  his  other  son,  Giovanni,  to  Cornelia  degli  Ales- 
sandri.  His  brother  Lorenzo  died  comparatively 
yoimg,  without  having  occupied  a  very  prominent 
place  in  the  State ;  but  as  he  left  a  son,  Piero  Fran- 


THE  MEDICI.  89 

cisco  de'  Medici,  the  family  divided  into  two  branches 
— the  elder,  of  which  Cosimo  the  Father  of  his 
Country  was  the  head,  and  the  younger,  issuing 
from  Lorenzo,  second  son  of  Giovanni  Averardo  di 
Bicci. 

It  was  Cosimo  who  built  the  Medici  Palace,  now 
called  the  Riccardi  Palace,  as  a  family  residence. 
Machiavelli  has  described  his  death  in  the  villa  at 
Careggi,  and  has  left  a  flattering  portrait  which  brings 
out  the  principal  traits  in  his  character.  After  enu- 
merating his  endowments,  his  undertakings,  and 
splendor  of  life,  he  praises  him  for  having  always  pre- 
served, both  in  public  and  private,  so  simple  a  de- 
meanor that  he  might  easily  have  been  mistaken  for 
the  humblest  of  his  feUow-citizens.  He  led  for  the 
most  part  a  very  laborious  Hfe,  but  during  his  latter 
years  allowed  himself  some  mental  relaxation,  and 
leaving  the  management  of  his  business  to  the  Toma- 
buoni,  the  Benci,  the  Portinari,  and  the  Sassetti, 
whose  fortunes  he  had  made,  surrounded  himself  with 
men  of  letters,  and  artists.  He  was  the  personal 
friend  of  Donatello  and  Michelozzo,  of  MarciUo  Ficino, 
of  Cristofero  Landino,  of  Giovanni  Cavalcanti,  of 
Bartolomeo  and  Filippo  Valori,  of  Baccio  Ugolini,  of 
Giovanni,  Pico,  and  of  Leone  Battista  Alberti. 

He  had  not,  it  may  be  admitted,  the  high  intellect- 
ual culture  of  Lorenzo  the  Magnificent,  but  it  was 
enough  for  a  Medici  to  be,  as  regards  comprehension 
and  enthusiasm,  on  a  level  with  those  who  produce 


40  FLORENCE. 

and  create.  Moreover  there  are  extant  letters  of 
Cosimo  the  Elder  which  show  that  he  was  an  ardent 
student.  In  one  of  these  he  writes  to  Marcilio  Ficino  : 
"  I  came  to  Careggi  yesterday  as  much  for  the  pur- 
pose of  improving  my  land  as  of  benefiting  myself. 
Come  to  see  me  as  soon  as  you  possibly  can,  and  do 
not  forget  to  bring  with  you  divine  Plato's  treatise  on 
*  The  Sovereign  Grood.'  You  ought  ere  this  to  have 
translated  it  into  Latin.  There  is  no  research  to  which 
I  would  devote  myself  more  zealously  than  to  that  of 
truth.  Come,  then,  and  bring  with  you  the  Orphean 
lyre." 

This  is  not  the  only  proof  of  his  enthusiasm  for 
literature.  In  the  shrubberies  and  woods  of  Careggi 
he  spent  the  hottest  hours  of  the  day  in  learned  dis- 
cussion with  the  great  writers  and  philosophers  whose 
names  we  have  quoted.  A  profound  admirer  of 
Gemistas  Plethon,  the  Greek  philosopher  who  up- 
held the  doctrines  of  Plato,  and  whose  tomb  I  dis- 
covered at  Kimini,  Cosimo  determined  to  found  a 
Platonician  school,  and  he  placed  at  the  head  of  it 
Marcilio  Ficino,  a  man  of  profound  intellect,  a  great 
thinker,  a  great  writer,  and  a  Christian  philosopher, 
who  declared  that  the  proofs  of  the  Divinity  were  to 
be  found  among  the  pagans,  as  the  Fathers  of  the 
Church  in  his  day  were  not  soimd.  Marcilio  was  the 
son  of  Cosimo's  physician  j  and  beneath  the  trees  of 
Careggi,  and  in  the  rooms  of  that  siunmer  residence, 
there  assembled  an  areopagus  composed  of  the  human- 


THE  MEDICI.  41 

ists  who  paved  the  way  for  the  literary  Renaissance 
in  Italy. 

The  death  of  Cosimo  the  Elder  was  very  touching. 
He  had  been  unhappy  in  his  private  life,  for  Gio- 
vanni, the  son  whom  he  liked  best,  had  died  young, 
and  Piero,  nicknamed  Gottoso — so  deformed  and  de- 
bilitated was  he  by  gout — ^became  too  infirm  to  bear 
the  burden  of  public  affairs.  Cosimo,  therefore,  found 
his  sole  consolation  in  literature.  Still,  he  lived  to 
see  his  grandson  Lorenzo,  the  son  of  Piero,  grow  up, 
and  at  the  age  of  sixteen  this  lad  showed  signs  of  the 
ability  which  made  him  the  greatest  man  of  his  day. 
Cosimo,  however,  never  got  over  the  death  of  Gio- 
vanni, and  as  he  was  being  carried  one  day  in  his 
chair  through  the  magnificent  rooms  of  the  Riccardi 
Palace  he  was  heard  to  murmur,  "  Too  large  a  house 
for  so  small  a  family."  Cosimo  died  on  the  1st  of 
August,  1464,  at  Careggi,  just  outside  Florence,  and 
he  was  buried  in  the  basilica  of  San  Lorenzo,  at  the 
foot  of  a  marble  column.  The  traveller  who  visits 
the  church  and  pauses  before  the  high  altar  will  be 
standing  upon  a  circle  of  inlaid  marble  bearing  the 
inscription,  "Cosmus  Medices — Hie  Situs  est — 
Decreto  Publico — Pater  Patria." 

PIERO  I.     (NICKNAMED  THE  GOUTY.) 
(1416-1469.) 

Piero  the  Gouty,  who  was  never  popular,  survived 
his  father  five  years,  and  died  at  the  age  of  fifty- 


42  FLORENCR 

three,  his  ill-health  preventing  him  from  taking  an 
active  part  in  public  affairs.  As  his  brothers  Carlo 
and  Giovanni  had  predeceased  him,  the  only  brilliant 
representative  of  the  race  of  the  Medici  was  his  sot 
Lorenzo,  who  gave  early  promise  of  his  distinguished 
abilities.  At  Cosimo's  death  Piero  on  the  advice  of 
Diotisalvi  Neroni,  a  trusted  friend  and  councillor  of 
his  father,  took  a  step  which  made  him  very  unpopular. 
He  had  a  list  of  his  debtors  made  out,  and  sought  to 
recover  the  sums  standing  against  their  names,  but 
as  Cosimo  had  never  claimed  these  moneys,  which  in 
many  cases  had  been  advanced  without  any  intention 
of  having  them  repaid,  his  right  was  called  in  ques- 
tion and  his  popularity  gone.  For  all  that  he  was 
a  thorough  Medici,  and  in  many  respects  a  very 
interesting  character.  Following  the  example  of 
Cosimo,  he  retained  the  services  of  Marcilio  Ficino, 
and  published  at  his  own  expense  the  five  volumes 
of  Plato  which  the  latter  had  translated  into  Latin. 
It  should  be  borne  in  mind,  too,  that  he  founded  a 
chair,  in  which  Marcilio  gave  lectures  on  the  great 
Greek  philosopher  to  large  and  enthusiastic  audi- 
ences. There  was  quite  a  fever  for  study,  and  it  is 
difficult  for  us,  absorbed  as  we  are  in  the  common- 
places of  politics  and  in  the  dreary  round  which 
dampens  all  generous  ideas  and  extinguishes  all  noble 
aspirations,  to  conceive  the  enthusiasm  which  took 
possession  of  the  people  of  Florence.  Marcilio  Ficino 
suspended  before  the  bust  of  Plato,  as  above  the  altar 


THE  MEDICI.  43 

of  a  church,  a  lighted  lamp.  Francesco  Sacchetti 
tells  us  that  on  one  occasion  an  admirer  of  Dante  took 
the  tapers  which  were  burning  upon  the  altar  of  the 
crucifix,  and  placed  them  before  the  poet's  bust,  say- 
ing, "  Accept  them,  for  you  are  more  worthy  of  them 
than  He."  The  whole  city  was  a  prey  to  delirium, 
but  delirium  of  a  most  generous  kind. 

Boccaccio  was  the  earliest  reader  of  the  Hiad  and 
the  Odyssey  in  the  original,  and  he  translated  them 
into  Latin  with  the  assistance  of  a  Greek  residing  in 
Calabria.  Petrarch,  who  did  not  know  Greek,  but 
who  had  read  the  Latin  translation,  preserved  the 
originals  as  a  relic.  The  movement  in  favor  of  Hellen- 
ism was  started  by  the  Greeks  who  came  to  the 
Council  of  Florence,  and  Piero's  son  vulgarized  the 
poets  and  historians  of  antiquity  by  forming  the 
famous  library  of  manuscripts  which  in  course  of  time 
became  the  "  Laurentiana." 

During  the  reign  of  Cosimo  the  Elder,  Niccolo 
Niccoli  spent  all  his  fortune  in  purchasing  manu- 
scripts, and  Cosimo,  remarking  how  well  versed  he 
was  in  antiquities,  took  him  into  his  employ,  and 
opened  a  credit  to  enable  him  to  buy  whatever 
seemed  to  him  worth  having.  It  was  he  who  dis- 
covered the  remaining  works  of  Ammianus  Marcelli- 
nus,  Cicero's  "  de  Oratore,"  and  the  Lubecca  Pliny. 
He  had  converted  his  house  into  a  public  library, 
and  any  one  was  allowed  to  go  in  and  read,  copy,  or 
translate,  while  those  who  wanted  advice    on  any 


44  FLORENCE. 

point  connected  with  their  studies  received  all  the 
assistance  in  his  power.  At  his  death  he  left  eight 
hundred  manuscripts,  valued  at  eight  thousand  gold 
florins,  which  Cosimo,  with  his  usual  Hberality,  pur- 
chased and  presented  to  the  monastery  of  San  Marco, 
which  occupies  so  prominent  a  place  in  the  history 
of  Florence.  By  his  wife  Lucrezia  Tomabuoni,  Piero 
had  two  sons,  Lorenzo  and  Giuliano,  and  by  his  own 
express  desire  he  was  buried  without  pomp  in  the 
Sagrestia  Vecchia  of  San  Lorenzo.  His  sons  Lorenzo 
sumamed  the  Magnificent,  and  Giuliano,  built  him  a 
superb  tomb  near  the  entrance  to  the  Lady  ChapeL 
Andrea  Verocchio,  the  sculptor  of  the  equestrian 
statue  of  Colleoni*  and  the  "  Child  and  the  Dolphin," 
was  employed  on  its  execution.  It  consists  of  a  por- 
phyry sarcophagus  resting  upon  a  marble  slab  sup- 
ported by  bronze  tortoises,  and  decorated  with  foHage 
of  the  most  exquisite  workmanship. 

LORENZO  THE  MAGNIFICENT. 

(1448-1492.) 

Camilla  Lucrezia  Tomabuoni,  the  mother  of  Lorenzo 
the  Magnificent  son  of  Piero,  has  left  behind  her  a 
reputation  for  great  prudence,  resolution,  and  dig- 
nity, some  of  the  stories  which  are  related  of  her  re- 
minding one  of  the  mother  of  the  Gracchi.  She  was 
as  highly  educated  as  any  woman  of  her  time,  and 

*  See  chapter  on  Verrochio. 


THE  MEDICI.  45 

the  number  of  works  dedicated  to  her  prove  how 
much  interest  she  took  in  literature.  Piero  and  she 
had  selected,  as  tutor  for  their  son  Lorenzo,  Gentile 
of  Urbino,  afterwards  Bishop  of  Arezzo.  He  was 
succeeded  by  Cristofero  Landino  ;  and  Argyropulus,  a 
learned  Hellenist  who  had  taken  refuge  at  Florence 
after  the  fall  of  Constantinople,  taught  the  boy  Greek 
and  the  philosophy  of  Aristotle.  Marcilio  Ficino, 
the  friend  of  his  father  and  the  son  of  his  grand- 
father's physician,  instructed  him  in  the  doctrines  of 
Plato. 

The  precocity  of  Lorenzo  had  struck  every  one, 
and  at  the  age  of  sixteen  he  was  so  intimately  versed 
in  political  affairs  that  he  was  deemed  ripe  for  a  diplo- 
matic mission.  He  was  first  sent  to  Pisa,  to  receive 
Frederick,  son  of  Ferdinand  King  of  Naples ;  then 
to  Rome,  where  Pope  Paul  H.  took  a  great  fancy  to 
him ;  to  Bologna,  in  order  to  strengthen  the  ancient 
alliance  between  Florence  and  the  BentivogHos ;  to 
Ferrara,  in  order  to  gain  over  the  Este  family  5  to 
Milan,  where  he  stood  godfather  to  a  son  of  Duke 
Galeazzo  Sforza ;  and  to  Venice,  where  he  kept  him- 
self informed  as  to  the  doings  of  the  Republic,  which 
was  always  ready  to  take  hostile  action  against  Flor- 
ence. In  1466  a  conspiracy  formed  against  him  and 
his  father,  who  was  to  have  been  put  to  death  while 
being  carried  in  his  litter  from  Careggi  to  Florence, 
was  discovered  and  crushed,  some  assert  through  the 
vigilance  of  Lorenzo.     Accaiuoli  and  Diotisalvi  Ne- 


46  FLOBENCE. 

roni  at  once  fled,  and  the  rest  of  the  conspirators  be- 
ing exiled,  fined,  or  admonished,  the  Medician  party 
was  left  in  complete  power.  On  the  death  of  Piero 
there  followed  a  comparatively  peacefid  epoch  of  de- 
velopment for  arts  and  literature.  Lorenzo  was  at 
the  head  of  this  movement,  forming  his  magnificent 
collections  and  founding  libraries.  Always  surrounded 
by  the  leading  personages  of  the  time,  he  devoted  all 
his  leisure  to  literary  pursuits,  and  it  was  at  this  period 
that  he  carried  on  those  discussions  in  the  woods  of 
the  Camaldulae  with  Cristofero  Landino,  Rinuccini, 
the  two  Acciajoli,  Leo  Battista  Alberti,  and  Marcilio 
Ficino,  anent  the  charms  of  a  contemplative  life, 
which  gave  rise  to  the  Disputationes  CamaMulenses 
of  Landino. 

Full  of  enthusiasm  for  literature,  Lorenzo  was 
himself  the  author  of  numerous  sonnets,  odes,  religious 
and  other  poems  of  sufficient  merit  to  place  him  among 
the  foremost  poetical  writers  of  his  day.  His  Canti 
Carnavaleshi  are  sometimes  called  the  earliest  exam- 
ples of  the  modem  satire  in  the  Italian  language.  He 
was  very  partial  to  what  were  then  called  "  triumphal 
displays,"  the  various  tableaux  in  which  were  de- 
signed by  himself,  and  the  execution  intrusted  to  the 
greatest  artists  of  the  day.  No  pains  were  spared  to 
make  these  fleeting  representations,  in  which  an- 
tiquity was  revived  for  an  hour,  as  perfect  as  possi- 
ble. The  painters  decorated  the  chariots  and  de- 
signed the  costumes,  the  sculptors  had  the  modelling 


THE  MEDICI.  47 

of  the  groups,  horses  were  caparisoned  in  the  skins 
of  lions,  tigers,  or  elephants,  beautiful  women  were 
adorned  with  the  emblems  of  the  pagan  divinities, 
and  poets  commented  on  these  compositions,  and  de- 
scribed the  figures  in  the  triumphal  processions. 
Parts  in  it  were  taken  by  such  men  as  Alemanni, 
Ruccelai,  and  Nardi ;  and  a  Medici  or  a  Strozzi  would 
spend  fabulous  sums  in  converting  his  fancy  into  real- 
ity for  an  hour.  The  corporations,  at  that  time  so 
powerful,  united  in  the  effort  to  make  these  "tri- 
umphs" succeed,  and  men  learned  in  antiquity,  like 
Politian  and  Marcilio  Ficino,  were  asked  to  do  their 
part  towards  gratifying  the  partiality  of  the  Floren- 
tine people  for  these  allegories. 

I  have  searched  in  vain  for  some  pictorial  record 
of  the  wonderful  fetes  given  by  the  Medici  and  other 
wealthy  citizens  of  their  day  ;  but  the  art  of  engrav- 
ing, by  which  they  might  have  been  preserved  to  us, 
was  not  then  in  existence.  It  was  not  until  the  close 
of  the  fifteenth  century  that  a  few  painters,  whose 
very  names  have  been  forgotten,  began  to  reproduce 
on  canvas  contemporaneous  events  5  these  pictures, 
which  enable  us  to  form  an  accurate  idea  of  the  cos- 
tumes and  festivals  of  the  time,  and  of  Florentine  life 
in  the  fifteenth  century,  being  very  scarce.  It  is 
only  in  Paolo  UceUo,  or  upon  the  marriage  caskets, 
of  which  South  Kensington  Museimi  possesses  a  fine 
collection,  that  we  catch  a  few  glimpses  of  what  pub- 
lic and  private  life  was  at  that  period.     We  know  by 


48  FLORENCE. 

a  casket  in  the  Academy  of  Fine  Arts  at  Florence 
what  an  aristocratic  wedding  was  like,  and  the  fres- 
coes by  Benozzo  Gozzoli  in  the  Riccardi  Palace  en- 
able us  to  form  an  opinion  of  the  deportment  of  the 
day ;  but  a  plastic  record  of  life  in  Florence  anterior 
to  1450  is  rarely  to  be  met  with.  The  only  insight 
into  the  inner  ways  of  the  inhabitants  is  that  which 
is  to  be  gained  from  the  manuscripts  of  the  beginning 
of  the  century,  the  embossed  reliefs  on  caskets,  and  a 
few  rare  specimens  of  contemporary  art.  With  these 
exceptions  all  is  antique.  Piero  della  Francesca,  Pisa- 
nello,  Pollauiolo,  Paolo  Ucello,  Benozzo  Gozzoli,  and 
Matteo  da  Pasti  have  recorded  with  chisel,  pen,  or 
brush  some  incidents  of  every-day  life,  trifling  at  that 
time,  but  of  surpassing  interest  now  ;  and  this  is  all 
we  know.  Botticelli,  Lippi,  and  Memmi,  engrossed 
in  allegorical  studies,  tell  us  nothing  of  their  own  time, 
closely  as  their  style  is  identified  with  it. 

We  are  more  fortunate  as  regards  literature,  though 
without  illustrations  to  accompany  them  the  many 
narratives  of  these  contemporary  writers  carry  little 
meaning  with  them,  interesting  as  are  the  works  of 
Boccaccio,  Francesco  Sacchetti,  Jacobo  Passavanti, 
Giovanni  Villani,  Poggio  Bracciolini,  and  Niccolo 
Niccoli. 

The  sixteenth  century  abounds  in  documents,  and 
there  are  as  many  as  twenty  illustrated  works  repre- 
senting festivals  and  "triumphs."  Yet,  interesting 
as  these  are,  they  have  not  the  raciness  of  the  fif- 


THE  MEDICI.  49 

teenth  century,  and  one  cannot  help  regretting  that 
it  is  impossible  to  convey  a  precise  idea  of  the  singu- 
lar customs  which  then  prevailed. 

The  narrative  of  a  Florentine  triumph,  designed 
by  Andrea  Dazzi — reader  of  Greek  and  Latin  to  the 
academy  of  the  city — the  cost  of  which  was  borne 
by  the  Del  Diamante  Company,  is  still  extant.  Dazzi 
suggested  three  chariots  representing  Youth,  Man- 
hood, and  Old  Age.  The  artists  who  designed  the 
chariots  were  Raffaello  delle  Vivole,  La  Carota,  and 
Andrea  del  Sarto  j  while  the  costumes  and  figures 
were  designed  by  Piero  da  Vinci,  the  father  of  Leo- 
nardo, and  Bernardino  di  Giordano.  The  first  chariot 
bore  the  motto  :  "  We  shall  be  5"  the  second,  "  We 
are ;"  the  third,  "  We  have  been." 

Lorenzo  the  Magnificent,  like  all  the  citizens  of 
that  day,  belonged  to  a  corporation ;  he  was  presi- 
dent of  his,  the  "  Broncone,"  and  he  commissioned 
Japo  Nardi,  a  very  learned  man,  to  design  him  six 
chariots,  so  that  the  festival  might  be  a  more  impos- 
ing one. 

Pontormo  was  the  painter  who  executed  this  de- 
sign. The  first  chariot,  drawn  by  oxen,  represented 
the  Golden  Age  with  Saturn,  Janus,  the  double-faced, 
seated  in  front  of  the  Temple  of  War,  the  door  of 
which  was  closed,  holding  the  key  of  the  temple,  and 
trampling  Discord  under  foot  j  then  came  semi-nude 
shepherds  crowned  with  flowers,  mounted  on  tigers 
and  lions.     Then  came  Numa  carrying  the  religious 

4 


$0  FLOEENCR 

books,  all  the  orders  of  priesthood,  the  augurs,  the 
haruspices,  and  all  the  pagan  liturgy,  with  the  mate- 
rial for  offering  up  sacrifices. 

Titus  Manlius  Torquatus  followed  upon  a  triumphal 
car  drawn  by  eight  horses,  preceded  by  senators  with 
lictors  and  fasces.  Behind  him  Julius  Caesar  tri- 
umphant, in  a  car  drawn  by  elephants,  surrounded 
by  all  the  imperial  court,  and  followed  by  the  peoples 
whom  he  had  vanquished.  Csesar  Augustus  repre- 
sented in  the  cortege  the  "  Triumph  of  the  Poets," 
some  of  whom,  crowned  with  laurel  and  mounted 
upon  winged  horses,  personified  their  native  province, 
while  each  carried  the  works  he  had  composed.  The 
sixth  car  was  that  of  the  Emperor  Trajan,  accom- 
panied by  the  doctors  of  the  law  and  tho  imperial 
legislators.  The  car  of  the  Golden  Age,  carved  by 
Baccio  Bandinelli,  brought  up  the  rear.  Lastly,  upon 
a  golden  terrestrial  sphere,  a  figure  representing  Dis- 
cord was  writhing  in  convulsions  ;  while  a  naked  in- 
fant, glittering  with  gold,  represented  the  Youth  of  * 
the  renascent  Golden  Age.  The  chronicler  adds  that 
this  beautiful  child,  the  son  of  a  baker,  who  had  doubt- 
less served  as  a  model  for  some  of  Donatello's  and 
Desiderio  da  Settignano's  sculptures  on  the  tombs  in 
Santa  Croce,  caught  cold  and  died  soon  afterwards. 

Upon  another  occasion  Lorenzo  the  Magnificent 
celebrated  the  "  Triumph  of  Bacchus ;"  but  the  only 
description  of  this  masquerade  we  have  is  the  lines 
which  he  composed  for  the  occasion,  his  theme  being, 


THE  MEDICI.  51 

^^  Let  us  eat  and  drink,  for  to-morrow  we  die."  The 
canti  carnavaleschi  of  that  day,  it  may  be  stated,  were 
very  often  fuJl  of  buffoonery  and  ribaldry. 

The  Florentine  people  were  never  tired  of  these 
festivals,  and  every  variety  of  subject  was  brought 
into  requisition.  On  one  occasion  a  group  of  artists, 
who  were  in  a  gloomy  vein,  after  having  celebrated 
the  "  Triumph  of  Life,"  determined  to  represent  the 
"  Triumph  of  Death."  In  the  midst  of  the  carnival, 
when  all  was  joy  and  mirth,  and  the  streets  and  bal- 
conies were  filled  with  eager  spectators,  a  chariot, 
painted  black,  with  death's  heads  and  cross-bones 
picked  out  in  white,  and  drawn  by  black  buffaloes, 
was  paraded  through  the  streets,  a  black  skeleton, 
with  a  scythe  in  its  bony  hands,  being  enthroned 
upon  coffins.  The  chariot  halted  at  each  street  cor- 
ner, and  a  suite  of  mourners  and  lugubrious  phantom 
figures  chanted  in  a  mournful  key  to  the  accompani- 
ment of  funeral  trumpets : 

"  Fummo  gia  come  voi  siete  : 
Voi  sarete  come  noi : 
Morti  siam  come  vedete  : 
Cosi  morti  vedrem  voi." 

"  We  were  as  you  are,  you  will  be  as  we  are  j  and 
as  you  see  us  dead,  so  shall  we  see  you  dead."  It 
may  easily  be  imagined  what  consternation  and  ter- 
ror this  caused  the  timid  women  and  children  in  the 
crowd,  while  the  more  sceptical  indulged  in  sinister 
jokes. 


62  FLORENCE. 

Vasari  has  given  a  long  description  of  this  singular 
device,  the  invention  of  which  he  ascribes  to  Piero 
de*  Medici,  the  father  of  Lorenzo.  It  was  Pontormo, 
once  more,  who  was  commissioned  to  design  the 
chariot,  which,  in  order  to  lend  more  reality  to  the 
scene,  was  followed  by  a  number  of  men  (supposed 
to  be  dead)  on  horseback,  the  leanest  and  the  most 
cadaverous-looking  that  could  be  found  having  been 
selected  for  the  occasion.  These  were  followed  by 
naked  mutes,  carrying  a  torch  in  one  hand,  and  in  the 
other  a  large  standard  with  skull  and  cross-bones. 

Vasari  was  himself  intrusted  with  the  preparations 
for  another  "  triumph,"  all  the  details  of  which,  in- 
cluding the  monuments  and  temporary  altars,  the 
chariots,  the  allegorical  figures  and  the  dresses,  were 
designed  by  him.  All  his  original  drawings  have 
been  preserved  in  an  album,  which  is  in  the  print- 
room  of  the  Uffizi  Gallery,  where  I  recently  exam- 
ined it  in  the  company  of  Chevalier  Carlo  Pini,  the 
librarian,  whose  premature  death  has  been  so  univer- 
sally regretted.  Lorenzo  was  unquestionably  the 
greatest  of  the  Medici  family,  the  true  Maecenas  of 
his  day,  and  even  before  the  "Principato,"  when  only 
called  as  first  citizen  to  fill  a  post  from  which  he  could 
at  any  moment  be  displaced,  he  put  himself  at  the 
head  of  the  intellectual  movement,  and  became  the 
centre  and  the  protector  of  art  and  literature.  He  was 
the  intimate  friend  of  DonateUo  and  Michelozzo  Mich- 
elozzi,  and  by  their  advice  formed  unrivalled  collec- 


THE  MEDICI.  58 

tions  of  pictures,  statuary,  antique  stones,  gems, 
goldsmith's  work,  and  sumptuous  furniture,  fitting 
out  the  Riccardi  Palace  with  the  most  valuable  and 
most  perfect  specimens  of  each.  Every  article  in 
this  collection  bore  either  his  arms  or  his  initials. 
There  are  porphyry  vases  now  in  the  possession  of 
Baron  Davilliers  of  Paris  which  imquestionably 
formed  part  of  it. 

Passionately  fond  of  architecture,  Lorenzo  worked 
himself  with  the  most  noted  architects  of  his  day,  and 
they  always  found  his  opinions  worth  listening  to. 
He  was  equally  zealous  in  the  cause  of  literature,  and 
founded,  first  at  San  Marco  and  afterwards  at  San 
Lorenzo,  a  school  of  copyists,  whose  duty  it  was  to 
reproduce  ancient  manuscripts.  The  Laurentian 
Library,  designed  by  Michael  Angelo,  and  added  to 
by  Vasari,  is  a  witness  to  the  zeal  of  the  Medici  for 
the  advancement  of  learning. 

Lorenzo  spared  no  effort  to  gather  around  him 
learned  men  of  aU  countries.  He  reopened  the  Uni- 
versity of  Pisa,  paid  the  professors,  took  upon  him- 
self the  cost  of  additional  buildings,  provided  them 
with  books,  and  dispatched  Giovanni  Lascari  to  the 
East  with  an  unlimited  credit  to  make  fresh  pur- 
chases. It  was  a  plain  citizen  who  did  all  this,  and 
it  seemed  as  if  the  whole  of  Florence  was  centred  in 
his  person.  Strange  to  say,  ambassadors  were  ac- 
credited to  him  as  to  a  sovereign,  even  when  he  was 
only  an  individual  member  of  the  Council  of  State  j 


54  FLOBENCE. 

and  a  hundred  different  circumstances  combined  to 
increase  his  personal  authority,  which  made  itself  felt 
as  a  mere  matter  of  course.  The  Emperor  of  Ger- 
many ;  King  John  IT.  of  Portugal ;  that  great  patron 
of  literature,  Matthias  Corvin ;  and  Louis  XI.  him- 
self, that  astute  politician  and  prince,  who  paved  the 
way  for  French  unity  by  his  abasement  of  the  feudal 
lords,  corresponded  with  him,  it  may  be  said,  as  with 
an  equal,  for  he  received,  without  any  intermediary, 
their  ambassadors  and  their  messages.  I  have  ex- 
amined, in  the  State  archives  of  Florence,  all  the  let- 
ters which  go  to  make  up  the  Medici  Carteggio  before 
and  after  the  "  Principato,"  and  it  is  most  instructive 
to  see  in  what  familiar  terms  the  highest  personages 
in  human  history  carried  on  discussions  with  a  private 
individual. 

The  historian  Guicciardini  has  left  a  description  of 
Florence  in  the  prosperous  year  of  1490,  when  the 
city,  in  the  enjoyment  of  peace  under  the  tranquil 
rule  of  Lorenzo,  seemed  to  have  reached  the  summit 
of  its  splendor.  He  depicts  Tuscany  as  being  en- 
riched from  mountain,  to  valley  and  plain  by  the 
peaceful  and  orderly  labor  of  its  prosperous  inhabit- 
ants ;  the  State  as  being  calm  in  the  knowledge  of 
its  strength,  in  no  fear  of  servitude  either  from  Rome 
or  the  Empire,  and  successful  in  attaching  to  itself 
those  neighboring  cities  which  were  formerly  hostile 
and  independent ;  princes  as  coming  from  all  parts 
of  the  world  to  visit  the  city  and  do  homage  to  the 


THE  MEDICI.  55 

Medici  and  the  eminent  citizens  who  were  gathered 
around  them ;  and  the  extraordinary  advance  of  civil- 
ization in  every  department  of  the  national  life.  He 
depicts  for  us  a  people  supple,  skilful,  well  gifted,  and 
so  devoted  to  art  that  each  street  was  a  museum  in 
itself,  and  a  class  of  artists  who  had  an  inborn  taste 
like  the  Athenians  in  the  time  of  Pericles,  and  who 
seemed  able  to  create  without  bodily  fatigue  or  men- 
tal effort  marvels  which  move  and  fascinate  us  even 
now.  And  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  this  unparal- 
leled prosperity  was  due  to  Lorenzo  de'  Medici,  who 
carried  on  the  work  of  his  ancestor  Cosimo,  the  peace- 
maker of  Italy  and  the  moderator  of  the  Republic. 

PRrVATE  liIPE  OF  liOBENZO  THE  MAGNIFICENT. 

It  is  interesting  to  investigate  the  character  in  pri- 
vate life  of  this  remarkable  man.  His  intimates  and 
associates  at  Careggi  and  Camalduli  have  given  him 
his  place  in  history,  and  Politian  asserts  that  none  of 
them  were  his  superiors  as  regards  subtlety  of  argu- 
ment and  soundness  of  judgment.  He  was  somewhat 
caustic,  it  has  been  said,  and  his  epigrams  have  re- 
mained famous  ;  but,  with  all  his  undisputed  author- 
ity, he  was  endowed  with  a  generosity  which  impelled 
him  to  make  future  provision  for  the  many  gifted  men 
who,  absorbed  by  intellectual  work,  had  failed  to  put 
by  anything  for  their  old  age.  He  has  been  accused 
of  being  a  devotee  of  pleasure,  of  acting  a  double 
part — of  being,  that  is,  very  austere  in  his  public 


66  FLORENCE. 

capacity  and  a  pleasure-seeker  in  private,  though 
able  at  a  moment's  notice  to  revert  to  business.  His 
father  had  married  him  while  still  very  young  to 
Clarice  Orsini,  of  an  illustrious  Roman  family,  and 
the  ceremony  was  performed  on  the  4th  of  June, 
1469.  The  marriage  was  not  one  of  the  heart,  for 
Lorenzo  recorded  it  as  follows  in  his  diary :  "  I, 
Lorenzo,  have  taken  in  marriage  Clarice,  daughter 
of  Jacob  Orsini ;  or  rather,  she  was  given  to  me  in 
marriage,  and  the  wedding  was  celebrated  in  our 
house  on  the  4th  of  June,  1469."  But  this  coldness 
was  soon  changed  into  a  lasting  and  perhaps  passion- 
ate affection,  for  on  the  22d  of  July  the  same  year 
he  writes  to  her  from  Milan,  "  I  am  doing  all  I  can 
to  hasten  my  return.  It  seems  as  though  we  had 
been  separated  a  thousand  years." 

Clarice  bore  him  four  daughters  and  three  sons : 
Peter,  bom  in  1471 ;  John,  in  1475  ;  and  Julian,  in 
1478.  Their  education  was  confided  to  the  famous 
Politian,  to  whom  he  gave  a  very  handsome  villa  at 
Fiesole.  The  last  named,  in  his  correspondence, 
gives  a  flattering  description  of  this  residence,  and 
in  writing  to  Marcilio  Ficino,  who  was  at  the  foot 
of  the  hill  with  Lorenzo  at  Careggi,  he  asks  him  to 
come  up  to  Fiesole,  and  as  an  inducement  says  that 
he  can  give  him  some  capital  wine  from  his  own  vine- 
yard. 

Clarice  Orsini  died  so  suddenly  in  1488  that  Lorenzo 
was  prevented  from  being  present  when  she  drew  her 


THE  MEDICI.  57 

last  breath,  but  he  seems  to  have  felt  her  loss  very 
much.  Less  fortunate  in  his  own  affairs  than  in 
public  life,  Lorenzo,  far  from  increasing  his  fortune, 
lost  a  great  part  of  it.  In  the  fif  st  place,  he  acquired 
the  surname  of  Magnifico  from  the  profusion  with 
which  he  spent  money  for  the  encouragement  of  art 
and  architecture  ;  and  though  his  ministers  and  stew- 
ards ought,  by  the  exercise  of  care,  to  have  made 
good  his  losses,  they  only  widened  the  breach,  and 
the  time  came  when  Florence,  out  of  gratitude  to  the 
most  illustrious  of  her  children,  was  obliged  to  assist 
him.  Lorenzo  then  made  a  thorough  change  in  the 
conduct  of  his  affairs,  and  instead  of  investing  what 
little  remained  to  him  in  commercial  speculations,  he 
purchased  land  and  founded  agricultural  colonies  in 
the  districts  of  Prato,  Pisa,  and  Val  di  Pesa,  which 
brought  in  a  more  certain  income  than  that  derived 
from  commerce.  In  1480  Lorenzo  succeeded  in 
establishing  a  Council  in  which  the  absolute  power 
of  the  Commonwealth  was  concentrated.  It  was 
composed  of  seventy  citizens  appointed  for  life  and 
all  completely  under  his  influence,  so  that  from  hence- 
forth he  held  undisputed  sway  over  Florence. 

I  have  said  nothing  about  the  most  formidable, 
though  not  the  only  conspiracy  hatched  against  him 
— that  of  the  Pazzi,  which  broke  out  on  the  26th  of 
April,  1478,  in  the  church  of  Santa  Maria  del  Fiore, 
and  cost  his  brother  Giuliano  his  life.  Battista  Fres- 
cobaldi  likewise  made  an  attempt  on  his  life  in  the 


68  FLORENCE. 

Carmine  Clmrch ;  and  Baldinetto  da  Pistoia  tried  to 
assassinate  him  in  a  villa  outside  of  Florence. 
Lorenzo  was  once  wounded,  but  the  would-be  assassins 
all  paid  the  penalty  of  their  crimes. 

He  was,  however,  such  a  suflferer  from  gout,  that 
at  the  age  of  forty  his  health  broke  down,  and  he 
lived  but  a  few  years  longer.  Politian,  describing 
his  last  moments,  says  that  all  the  nerves  were  shat- 
tered, and  that  the  seat  of  the  mischief  was  in  the 
intestines.  Lorenzo  was  taken  ill  at  Florence,  but  he 
had  himself  carried  to  the  Careggi  villa,  where  all  his 
friends  gathered  about  him  and  entertained  him  with 
their  clever  talk. 

It  is  said  that  among  the  last  visitors  to  his  bedside 
was  one  whose  name  was  already  becoming  famous 
throughout  Italy.  This  was  Girolamo  Savonarola  j 
and  there  are  two  very  opposite  accounts — one  by 
Burlamachi  and  the  other  by  Politian — of  what  passed 
at  the  interview  between  Lorenzo  and  the  fierce 
monk.  Burlamachi  asserts  that  Lorenzo  humbly 
asked  the  father's  absolution  for  three  faults  for 
which  he  felt  great  remorse. 

The  first  was  the  sack  of  Volterra,  whose  women 
and  children  were  cruelly  used  by  the  soldiers,  for 
which  he  was  responsible,  as  he  had  promised  that 
their  lives  should  be  spared.  The  second  was  his 
having  appropriated  the  marriage  portions  of  the 
young  girls,  to  which  act  must  be  ascribed  the  going 
astray  of  many  women  who  were  thus  thrown  with- 


THE  MEDICI.  59 

out  resource  on  the  world.  The  third  fault  was  the 
reprisals  made  after  the  Pazzi  conspiracy,  by  which 
many  innocent  persons  were  put  to  death. 

Savonarola  reminded  the  dying  man  of  the  in- 
exhaustible mercy  of  God,  but  insisted  upon  his 
making  amends  for  each  of  these  faults  as  far  as  pos- 
sible, to  which  Lorenzo  agreed.  Before  leaving, 
however,  he  declared  that  in  order  to  obtain  the 
divine  favor,  Lorenzo  must  restore  to  Florence  her 
lost  hberty  and  re-establish  popular  government ; 
whereupon,  according  to  Burlamachi,  the  sick  man 
turned  over  on  his  bed  and  refused  to  hear  any 
more. 

Politian's  account  is  very  different.  According  to 
him,  Lorenzo,  feeling  his  end  to  be  near,  sent  for  a 
priest  and  confessed  to  him.  The  priest — who  had 
been  sent  for,  instead  of  coming  of  his  own  accord, 
as  Burlamachi  asserts — said,  on  leaving  the  sick 
chamber,  that  he  had  never  seen  a  dying  man  show 
so  much  courage,  presence  of  mind,  and  clearness  of 
intellect.  At  nightfall  the  holy  sacrament  was 
brought,  and  Lorenzo  rose  to  receive  it ;  having 
taken  it  on  his  knees,  he  went  back  to  bed  and  spoke 
a  few  words  of  encouragement  to  his  son  Piero,  who 
was  the  only  person  with  him.  One  Piero  Leori,  a 
celebrated  doctor  of  that  day,  who  had  been  sent  for 
at  the  last  moment,  came  in  just  afterwards,  and,  ac- 
cording to  Politian,  asked  for  some  precious  stones, 
which  he  wanted  to  pulverize  and  mix  with  a  potion. 


60  FLORENCE. 

Politian  administered  the  medicine,  and  Lorenzo, 
recognizing  his  voice,  said,  "  WTiat,  is  that  you,  dear 
Angiolo  f '  pressing  him  to  his  bosom.  Politian  was 
obliged  to  go  out  of  the  room  to  give  free  course  to 
his  grief,  and  on  his  return  Lorenzo  again  noticed 
him  and  asked  after  Pico  della  Mirandola.  He  in- 
sisted on  his  being  sent  for,  and  Lorenzo,  clasping 
him  to  his  breast,  declared  that  he  should  "  die  happier 
for  having  seen  such  a  dear  friend.  I  only  wish  that 
I  could  have  lived  to  complete  our  library."  Savon- 
arola then  came  in,  and  Politian  makes  no  allusion  to 
any  recriminations,  speaking  of  the  monk  as  if  he 
had  been  gentle  and  forbearing,  and  saying  that  when 
he  left  he  gave  them  all  his  benediction.*  The  room 
gradually  became  crowded,  and  while  all  the  others 
were  overcome  Lorenzo  remained  perfectly  calm. 
When  his  medicine  was  administered,  and  he  was 
asked  if  it  was  pleasant  to  the  taste,  he  replied,  "  As 
pleasant  as  anything  can  be  to  a  dying  man."  He 
died  with  his  eyes  fastened  on  the  crucifix,  and  Poli- 
tian speaks  in  glowing  terms  of  his  liberality  and 
magnificence,  of  his  constancy  in  adversity,  and  of 
his  modesty  in  good  fortune. 


*  Even  Politian  does  not  say,  however,  that  Savonarola  pro- 
nounced absolution.  Prof.  Pasquale  Villari  considers  that  the 
account  given  by  Burlamachi  is  the  true  one,  and  cites  a  number 
of  authorities  in  support  of  this  opinion.  See  "  Hist,  of  Giro- 
lamo  Savonarola  and  of  His  Times."  By  Pasquale  Villati. 
Book  I.,  Ch.  IX.     Note. 


Lorenzo, 

da 

r 

. ....  .„,4 

Savon- 

it  tie 

wiieo 

room 

ie 


TJie  Daomo,  Cathedral  ofS*  Maria  delFtore 
Scene  of  the  Pazzi  Conspiracy 


THE  MEDICI.  61 

GIULIANO  DE'  MEDICI. 

(1453-1478.) 

THE  PAZZI  C0N8PIBACY. 

Assassinated  in  cold  blood  at  Santa  Maria  del  Fiore 
jfhen  only  five-and-twenty,  Giuliano  was,  like  Lorenzo, 
ft  son  of  Piero  il  Gottoso  ;  and  he,  too,  was  bom  to 
command.  Like  all  who  die  young,  he  leaves  behind 
him  kindly  recollections,  and  Politian  gives  the  follow- 
ing sketch  of  him  :  "  He  was  tall,  with  broad  shoul- 
ders, a  well-developed  chest,  strong,  muscular ;  well 
built  on  his  legs,  and  endowed  with  more  physical 
power  than  a  man  can  need.  His  eyes  were  a  deep 
black,  his  complexion  very  dark,  like  his  hair,  which 
he  wore  brushed  back  from  the  temples.  A  fine 
horseman  and  a  good  shot,  he  was  also  an  adept  at 
gymnastics  and  aU  kinds  of  games,  while,  in  gratify- 
ing his  fondness  for  the  chase,  he  did  not  know  what 
fatigue  and  hunger  meant.  He  was  high-minded  and 
firm  in  his  judgment,  with  an  instinctive  fondness  for 
all  that  was  elegant,  and  a  decided  taste  for  poetry. 
He  has  left  behind  a  few  verses  in  the  vulgar  tongue 
on  grave  subjects,  but  light  literature  formed  his 
favorite  reading.  Very  ready-witted,  extremely  ur- 
bane, and  with  an  unmitigated  contempt  for  false- 
hood, he  did  not  readily  forget  an  injury.  He  was 
particular  as  to  his  dress,  but  not  to  the  extent  of 
being  a  fop.  He  had  a  manly  carriage,  and,  while 
full  of  respect  for  his  elders,  was  very  considerate  to 


62  FLORENCR 

those  beneath  him.  All  these  qualities  made  him  a 
general  favorite,  and  his  death  was  looked  upon  as  a 
public  calamity." 

It  is  said  that  some  days  after  the  conspiracy  which 
put  an  end  to  his  life,  one  of  his  most  intimate  friends, 
Antonio  de  San  Gallo,  went  to  Lorenzo  the  Magnifi- 
cent, and  made  a  confession  to  him.  Giuliano  had 
formed  a  liaison  with  a  young  girl  of  the  Gorini  family, 
by  whom  he  had  had  a  son.  Lorenzo,  after  having 
received  his  evidence  and  ascertained  the  truth  of  it, 
took  this  child  imder  his  care,  and  he  afterwards  be- 
came Pope  Clement  VII.  There  is  not  in  the  whole 
history  of  Florence  a  more  dramatic  episode  than 
that  which  is  known  by  the  name  of  "  the  Conspiracy 
of  the  Pazzi."  We  have  two  contemporary  narra- 
tives which  are  historic  landmarks  :  one  in  Latin, 
written  by  Angelo  Politian,  the  other  in  the  vulgar 
tongue  by  Machiavelli.  Dandolo,  in  his  splendid 
essays  on  "  Florence  down  to  the  Fall  of  the  Repub- 
lic," declares  that  MachiaveUi's  narrative  is  spoilt  by 
the  tone  of  spite  that  imdemins  it  all,  whilst  Politian's, 
on  the  other  hand,  bears  the  impress  of  favoritism. 
In  Machiavelli  the  facts  are  perhaps  more  clearly  set 
forth,  and  he  it  is  whom  I  have  taken  for  my  au- 
thority. I  now  give  the  true  causes  of  the  conspiracy, 
according  to  Machiavelli,  which,  in  1478,  nearly  cost 
Lorenzo  de'  Medici  his  life.  Pope  Sixtus  IV.,  angry 
with  the  Medici  for  the  assistance  they  had  lent  to 
Nicolo  Vitelli  and  other  barons  of  the  Romagna,  had 


THE  MEDICI.  68 

taken  from  Lorenzo  the  charge  of  the  treasure  of  the 
Holy  See  in  order  to  invest  it  in  the  hands  of  a  cer- 
tain Pazzi,  a  man  of  a  noble  Florentine  family,  of 
good  position,  and  owner  of  a  bank  at  Rome.  This 
Pazzi  was  the  last  survivor  of  three  brothers  who 
had  left  children.  One — Guglielmo — had  espoused 
Bianca,  the  sister  of  Lorenzo  de'  Medici ;  Francesco, 
the  other  nephew,  had  for  some  years  lived  at  Rome ; 
while  Giovanni,  the  third,  had  chosen  as  his  wife  the 
daughter  of  Buonromei,  a  man  of  immense  wealth, 
of  whom  she  was  the  sole  heiress.  All  this  fortune 
would  then  in  the  course  of  things  come  to  Giovanni's 
wife,  but  a  relative  appearing  upon  the  scene  claimed 
a  share  of  the  property. 

A  lawsuit  followed,  and  the  daughter  of  Buonromei 
lost  all  that  she  had  inherited  from  her  father ;  and 
the  Pazzi  detected  in  this  decision  the  influence  of 
the  Medici,  Giuliano  himself  expressing  to  his  brother 
Lorenzo  the  fear  that  by  grasping  at  too  much  they 
would  lose  all.  Lorenzo,  however  (we  must  remember 
that  it  is  Machiavelli  who  is  speaking),  elated  with 
youth  and  power,  imagined  that  he  might  do  what 
he  pleased ;  while  the  Pazzi,  on  the  other  hand, 
strong  in  the  possession  of  wealth  and  a  high  social 
position,  were  fully  determined  not  to  put  up  with  so 
gross  an  injustice,  and  sought  means  for  a  speedy 
vengeance.  The  first  to  act  in  the  matter  was 
Francesco,  by  far  the  most  energetic  and  sensitive 
member  of  the  family.     He  declared  that  he  was 


64  FLORENCR 

determined  to  recover  that  which  he  had  ah*eady  lost 
or  else  to  lose  all.  He  passed  nearly  all  his  time  at 
Rome,  out  of  hatred  to  the  Florentine  Government, 
and  whilst  there  contracted  a  close  alliance  with 
Girolamo,  Count  of  Riaro,  the  Pope's  nephew.  They 
interchanged  confidences  on  the  subject  of  their 
mutual  animosity  against  the  Medici,  till  they  began 
to  conspire  and  think  out  by  what  means  they  could 
change  the  form  of  government.  The  conclusion 
they  arrived  at  was  dramatic :  the  death  of  Giuliano 
and  Lorenzo  alone  would  enable  them  to  arrive  at 
their  end.  They  did  not  doubt  but  that  the  Holy 
Father  would  lend  his  aid,  provided,  however,  it  was 
made  clear  to  him  that  the  end  was  well  defined  and 
easy  of  accomplishment.  They  next  confided  their 
scheme  to  Francesco  Salviati,  Archbishop  of  Pisa,  an 
ambitious  prelate,  who  had  suffered  much  at  the 
hands  of  the  Medici  family.  Salviati  readily  joined 
the  conspiracy  ;  but  they  had  a  far  more  difficult  task 
in  enlisting  the  services  of  Jacopo  di  Pazzi.  This  was, 
however,  finally  accomplished,  and  another  Jacopo, 
son  of  the  celebrated  Poggio,  two  others  of  the  Sal- 
viati— ^the  one  a  brother  and  the  other  a  connection 
of  the  Archbishop,  Bernardo  Bandini,  and  Napoleone 
Franzesi,  energetic,  young,  courageous,  and  devoted 
to  the  Pazzi,  joined,  as  also  did  Giovanni  Battista  da 
Montesecco,  Condottiere  in  the  Papal  service,  together 
with  Antonio  da  Volterra  and  a  priest  named  Stefano. 
Rinato  de'  Pazzi,  an  able  and  thoughtful  man,  who 


THE  MEDICI.  65 

foresaw  the  dangers  of  such  an  enterprise,  refused  to 
listen,  and  did  all  he  could  to  dissuade  them  from 
their  project.  The  Pope  had  placed  Raffaelo  Riario, 
a  nephew  of  Count  Girolamo,  at  the  college  of  Pisa, 
and  whilst  there  he  was  promoted  to  the  Cardinalate. 
The  conspirators  invited  the  Cardinal  to  come  to 
Florence,  with  the  idea  that  his  arrival  would  serve 
as  a  screen  to  the  execution  of  their  project.  The 
Cardinal  did  in  fact  arrive,  and  was  received  by 
Jacopo  de'  Pazzi.  The  first  suggestion  was  to  get 
rid  of  the  Medici  during  the  visit  that  they  would  no 
doubt  pay  to  the  illustrious  stranger,  but  they  failed 
to  put  in  an  appearance.  It  was  next  proposed  to 
give  a  banquet  on  Sunday,  April  26,  1478,  and  assas- 
sinate the  two  brothers  at  table,  but  hearing  that  they 
would  not  be  there,  another  plan  had  to  be  hastily 
substituted.  They  would  kill  them  even  in  the 
cathedral,  where  they  could  hardly  fail  to  be  present 
at  divine  service  on  the  occasion  of  the  attendance  of 
Riario.  Lorenzo  was  assigned  to  Montesecco,  while 
Francesco  de'  Pazzi  and  Bernardo  Bandini  were  to 
attack  Giuliano.  Montesecco,  however,  rejected  this 
arrangement  at  once,  on  the  ground  that  he  had  not 
sufficient  courage  to  commit  so  great  an  act  of  sacri- 
lege in  a  church.  This  was  one  of  the  causes  of  the 
failure  of  the  enterprise.  There  was  no  time  to  lose, 
and  there  was  no  other  course  than  to  leave  the  busi- 
ness of  assassinating  Lorenzo  to  Antonio  da  Volterra 
and  the  priest  Stefano,  both  equally  incapable  and 

5 


66  FLORENCE 

spiritless  men.  This  decision  once  arrived  at,  the 
moment  of  the  elevation  of  the  Host  was  fixed  on 
as  the  signal. 

After  the  death  of  the  Medici  the  Archbishop  and 
Poggio  were  to  occupy  the  palace,  where  the  Signoria, 
either  of  their  own  free-will  or  by  force,  were  ex- 
pected to  give  in  their  adherence  to  the  conspirators. 
The  hour  has  arrived ;  we  are  in  the  temple  with 
the  thronging  multitude.  The  divine  service  has 
commenced,  but  Giuliano  is  not  here.  Francesco  and 
Bernardo,  who  are  to  assassinate  him,  go  to  his  house 
in  search  of  him.  How  deeply  must  their  murderous 
intention  have  sunk  into  their  minds  when  they  could 
go  and  seek  out  their  victim  in  his  own  palace,  and 
bring  him  to  the  place  of  execution !  It  is  even  said  that 
Francesco,  feigning  symptoms  of  the  greatest  affec- 
tion, felt  his  enemy  in  order  to  make  sure  that  he  did 
not  wear  a  coat  of  mail.  At  the  church  they  took  up 
their  positions  on  the  right  and  left  of  Giuliano,  and 
when  the  moment  arrived  Bandini,  with  one  vigorous 
blow,  ran  him  through  the  breast.  The  victim  only 
made  a  few  steps  forward,  and  then  fell  dead.  Fran- 
cesco threw  himself  on  the  body,  and  striking  blindly 
and  madly,  inflicted  on  himself  a  deep  wound.  From 
the  other  side  Antonio  and  Stefano  attacked  Lorenzo. 
They  only  succeeded,  however,  in  inflicting  a  slight 
wound  in  the  neck.  He  defended  himself  with  vigor, 
assisted  by  those  who  surrounded  him.  Bandini, 
however,  with  his  knife  stained  with  Giuliano's  blood, 


THE  MEDICI.  67 

then  turned  his  weapon  against  Lorenzo,  and  finding 
Francesco  Nori,  a  creature  of  the  Medici,  in  his  way, 
felled  him  with  one  blow.  On  this  the  partisans  of 
the  Medici  surrounded  Lorenzo  and  hurried  him  into 
the  sacristy,  when  Poligiano  closed  the  bronze  doors. 
As  it  was  thought  probable  that  Stefano's  blade  had 
been  poisoned,  a  young  man  in  the  sacristy  itself 
offered  to  suck  Lorenzo's  wound.  A  general  terror 
and  consternation  prevailed  in  the  church.  As  soon 
as  the  news  spread  through  the  city,  the  citizens 
came  in  arms  to  escort  Lorenzo  to  his  palace,  avoid- 
ing the  route  taken  by  those  who  were  carrying  his 
brother's  corpse.  Salviati,  however,  accompanied  by 
a  band  of  thirty,  had  already  arrived  to  occupy  the 
palace,  and,  leaving  most  of  his  companions  in  the 
antechamber,  entered  the  hall  where  the  Gonfaloniere 
was  sitting.  But  his  expression  and  agitated  manner 
at  once  aroused  the  magistrate's  suspicion,  and  the 
latter,  rushing  from  the  haJl,  encountered  Poggio, 
whom  he  seized  by  the  hair  and  put  imder  arrest. 
Those  present  protesting,  their  arms  were  taken 
away,  and  all  those  who  had  accompanied  Salviati 
upstairs  were  either  killed  or  thrown  out  of  the  win- 
dows. The  Archbishop,  the  two  Salviati,  and  Poggio 
were  hung.  The  others,  who  had  remained  below, 
had  forced  the  guard  and  installed  themselves  in  the 
ground-floor,  so  that  the  citizens  who  had  congregated 
at  the  sound  of  such  an  uproar  could  afford  no  aid  to 
the  Signoria.     Meanwhile  Francesco  de'  Pazzi  and 


68  FLORENCE. 

Bandini  had  had  time  to  consider  matters,  and  seeing 
the  failure  of  the  plot,  the  latter  took  to  flight, 
whilst  the  former  was  for  making  one  last  eflFort. 
Wounded  though  he  was,  he  yet  mounted  his  horse 
and  tried  to  rally  the  people  to  him  in  the  name  of 
liberty  ;  but  the  blood  he  had  lost  soon  rendered  him 
incapable  of  action.  He  was  compelled  to  lie  down 
on  a  couch,  bidding  Jacopo  take  his  place.  Aged 
and  feeble  as  the  latter  was,  he  mounted  his  horse  to 
make  a  last  attempt,  and  entering  the  square,  sum- 
moned the  people  to  his  aid  in  the  name  of  liberty — 
a  word  that  had  long  since  become  meaningless  in 
Florence.  No  one  joined  him,  and  the  only  answer 
to  his  appeal  was  a  shower  of  stones  from  the  Signoria, 
confined  in  the  upper  story  of  the  palace.  Jacopo 
was  now  in  despair,  and  seeing  that  the  people  were 
opposed  to  him,  that  Lorenzo  was  alive,  Francesco 
wounded,  and  the  attempt  hopelessly  frustrated,  he 
tried  to  save  his  own  life.  Followed  by  a  few  men, 
he  escaped  from  Florence  in  the  direction  of  the 
Romagna. 

Meanwhile  the  whole  town  had  flown  to  arms. 
The  old  palace  was  soon  retaken,  and  nearly  all  the 
conspirators  were  captured  or  put  to  death.  Fran- 
cesco was  dragged  naked  from  his  bed,  and  hung  by 
the  feet  alongside  the  Archbishop.  The  only  one  of 
the  Pazzi  whose  life  was  spared — and  that  through 
the  intercession  of  his  wife — was  Guglielmo,  the 
brother-in-law  of  Lorenzo.     Rinato,    who   had   re- 


THE  MEDICI.  69 

fused  to  join  in  the  conspiracy,  had  withdrawn  to  his 
villa,  but  while  attempting  to  escape  in  disguise  was 
discovered  and  brought  back.  Jacopo  was  arrested 
when  crossing  the  Apennines  by  some  of  the  inhabit- 
ants of  those  parts,  who,  despite  his  prayers,  refused 
to  kill  him,  but  conducted  him  back  to  Florence, 
where  he  was  condemned  to  death  in  company  with 
Rinato.  Four  days  later  his  body  was  taken  from 
the  family  vault  in  which  it  had  been  buried  and 
thrown  into  a  ditch  outside  the  city  walls  ;  from  thence 
it  was  disinterred  afresh,  dragged  through  the  city, 
and  thrown  into  the  Amo. 

He  was  a  man  of  vicious  habits,  but  his  charitable 
deeds  had  made  him  very  popular.  On  the  Saturday 
before  the  conspiracy  he  paid  all  his  debts,  settled  his 
accounts,  and  took  care  that  no  claim  should  be  left 
outstanding.  Montesecco  was  beheaded,  and  Napo- 
leone  Francesci  only  escaped  the  same  fate  by  flight. 
Bandini  never  halted  till  he  had  crossed  the  frontier 
into  the  Turkish  states,  but  the  Sultan  handed  him 
over  to  the  Florentines,  who  put  him  to  death  in  the 
following  year.  Guglielmo  de'  Pazzi  was  banished, 
and  his  cousins  imprisoned  for  life  in  the  tower  of 
Volterra.  When  all  the  conspirators  had  been  tried 
the  obsequies  of  Giuliano  were  celebrated  with  great 
pomp.  He  left  a  natural  son  named  Giulio,  for  whom, 
as  Pope  Clement  VH.,  the  highest  honors  and  the 
deepest  calamities  were  in  store. 

To  perpetuate  the  recollection  of  this  event  Botti- 


70  FLORENCE. 

celli  was  commissioned  to  paint  the  effigies  of  all  the 
conspirators  upon  the  fa5ade  of  the  palace  of  the 
Podest^,  now  called  the  Bargello,  which  faces  on  Via 
Ghibellina,  just  as  the  enemies  of  Cosimo  the  Elder, 
grandfather  of  Lorenzo  and  Giuliano,  had  been  repre- 
sented there  by  Andrea  del  Castagno,  himg  by  their 
feet,  a  circimistance  to  which  the  painter  owed  his 
nickname  of  "Andrea  degli  Impiccati"  (Andrea  of 
the  hanged  men).  This  extraordinary  painting,  which 
would  be  of  priceless  value  now,  was  destroyed  in 
the  course  of  the  many  restorations  of  the  Bargello. 
Orsini,  a  skilful  modeller  in  wax,  made,  with  the  help 
of  Verrocchio,  three  life-size  figures,  representing 
Lorenzo  defending  himself  against  his  assassins,  but 
they,  too,  have  disappeared. 

We  possess,  however,  a  medallion  by  that  gifted 
artist  Antonio  Pollaiulo,  representing  on  one  side  the 
murder  of  Giuliano,  with  the  choir  of  Santa  Maria  del 
Fiore  at  the  moment  of  the  elevation  of  the  Host,  and 
the  profile  of  the  victim  with  his  name,  Jvlianvs 
Medices,  and  the  inscription  LvCTVS  Pvblicvs,  while 
on  the  reverse  is  the  same  choir,  and  in  the  fore- 
ground Lorenzo  escaping  from  the  daggers  of  the 
assassins,  and  above  the  profile  of  Lorenzo,  with  his 
name,  Lavrentivs  Medices,  and  the  inscription 
Salvs  Pvblica. 

This  is  the  more  interesting  historically  as  show- 
ing what,  in  the  time  of  Cosimo  the  Elder  and  Lorenzo, 
was  the  shape  of  the  original  choir  built  by  Amolfo. 


THE  MEDICI.  71 

THE  THKEE  SONS  OF  LORENZO  THE  MAGNIFICENT 
AND  THE  RETURN  OF  THE  MEDICI. 

PiETRO  Giovanni  Giitliano  II. 

(1471-1503).  (1475-1521).  (1478-1516). 

Having  consolidated  his  fortune  by  attention  to 
agriculture,  Lorenzo  left  his  son  Pietro  in  a  very 
comfortable  position,  but  the  latter  soon  embarked 
upon  a  career  of  pleasure  and  took  little  interest  in 
the  affairs  of  State.  At  the  same  time  he  was  rather 
despotic  in  his  views,  and  attempted  to  govern  inde- 
pendently of  the  Signoria. 

The  death  of  Lorenzo  had  placed  Ludovico  Sforza, 
uncle  of  the  nominally  reigning  Duke  of  Milan,  in  a 
very  precarious  position;  he  accordingly  invited  King 
Charles  VIII.  of  France  to  interfere  in  Italian  affairs, 
and  the  latter,  entering  Lombardy  with  upwards  of 
thirty  thousand  soldiers,  advanced  upon  the  Tuscan 
frontier.  Pietro  de'  Medici,  remembering  the  bril- 
liant part  played  by  his  grandfather  under  similar  cir- 
cumstances, imagined  that  he  could  achieve  a  like 
success,  and  accordingly,  without  consulting  the  Sig- 
noria, set  forth,  a  self-appointed  ambassador,  to  the 
French  camp.  Charles  received  him  with  much 
courtesy,  but  asked  for  some  guarantee  of  his  good 
faith,  whereupon  the  weak-minded  Pietro  actually 
ceded  to  him  the  fortresses  of  Sarzana,  Sarzanello, 
Pietra  Santa,  Leghorn,  Librafatta,  and  Pisa. 

Great  was  the  indignation  in  Florence  when  this 
ignoble  transaction  became  known.     The  Signoria 


72  FLORENCK 

made  no  attempt  to  disguise  their  displeasure,  while 
the  people  assembled  beneath  the  balconies  of  the 
Medici  Palace  uttering  loud  complaints  and  threats. 
An  accredited  embassy,  headed  by  Savonarola,  was 
at  once  dispatched  to  Charles's  camp,  but  even  the 
eloquence  of  the  fiery  monk  could  not  avail  to  imdo 
the  mischief.  On  their  return  to  Florence  Piero 
Capponi  induced  the  people  to  rise  in  revolt  against 
the  Medician  tyranny.  Pietro  took  flight,  going  first 
to  Bologna,  where  Bentivoglio  accorded  him  a  very 
cool  welcome,  and  from  thence  to  Venice,  where,  his 
reception  being  likewise  far  from  friendly,  he  deemed 
it  safer  to  withdraw  for  a  time  at  least,  from  society 
and  lead  as  retired  a  life  as  possible. 

On  the  17th  of  November,  1494,  the  King  entered 
Florence  and  took  up  his  residence  in  the  Medician 
palace.  Negotiations  were  now  opened,  but  Charles 
found  his  haughty  demands  resisted  with  so  much 
spirit  and  determination  by  Capponi  and  Savonarola 
that  he  judged  it  more  prudent  to  modify  them.  An 
agreement  was  finally  reached  by  which  Florence 
undertook  to  pay  a  fine  of  120,000  gold  florins, 
50,000  to  be  paid  at  once  and  the  remaining  70,000 
at  an  early  date ;  and  shortly  afterwards  the  King 
withdrew  with  his  forces. 

It  was  upon  this  occasion  that  the  Medici  Palace 
was  first  sacked,  the  splendid  collections  formed  by 
Cosimo,  and  added  to  by  Piero  and  Lorenzo,  being 
either  destroyed  or  stolen. 


THE  MEDICI.  78 

After  the  departure  of  the  French,  Florence  busied 
herself  in  establishing  a  new  government,  which, 
under  the  advice  of  Savonarola,  took  the  form  of  a  great 
council,  composed  of  a  thousand  or  more  citizens. 

The  years  that  followed  were  stormy  ones ;  the 
city  was  torn  by  factions,  the  rival  parties  only  unit- 
ing in  a  common  desire  to  regain  possession  of  Pisa. 
In  1497  Pietro  de'  Medici  made  an  unsuccessful  at- 
tempt to  enter  the  city  with  an  armed  following.  He 
subsequently  took  service  under  Louis  XII.,  and  was 
drowned  by  the  upsetting  of  a  boat  loaded  with  artil- 
lery on  the  river  Garighano,  together  with  some  of 
the  King's  suite.  He  was  only  thirty-two  years  of  age, 
and  his  wretched  existence  and  miserable  end  are  in 
striking  contrast  with  the  life  and  death  of  his  father. 

By  the  year  1502  affairs  had  reached  such  a  pass 
in  Florence  that  it  was  felt  by  all  that  some  change 
was  imperatively  demanded,  and  in  August  of  that 
year  Pietro  Soderini  was  appointed  to  the  office  of 
Gonfaloniere  for  life  instead  of  two  months,  the  usual 
term,  his  unblemished  character  and  the  fact  of  his 
having  no  children  to  awaken  ambitious  designs  in 
his  breast,  being  the  reasons  adduced  for  bestowing 
this  important  office  upon  him. 

But  that  warlike  Pontiff,  Julius  H.,  had  other  views 
for  Florence,  and  exasperated  at  the  manner  in  which 
the  Republic  had  withheld  any  active  assistance  in 
his  war  with  the  French,  and  her  refusal  to  depose 
Soderini  and  reinstate  the  Medici,  he  now  determined 


74  FLORENCE 

to  accomplish  his  ends  by  force.  On  the  2l8t  of 
August,  1512,  the  alarming  news  reached  Florence 
that  the  Viceroy  Raymond  de  Cordova  was  advanc- 
ing with  a  large  army,  and  accompanied  by  the 
Medici.  On  the  29th  he  took  Prato  by  assault,  and 
there  was  a  renewal  of  all  the  horrors  of  Brescia. 
News  of  this  disaster  reached  Florence  in  the  middle 
of  the  night.  Soderini  fled,  an  act  that  has  been 
stigmatized  by  Machiavelli  in  four  well-known  lines. 
Ambassadors  were  dispatched  to  treat  with  the  Vice- 
roy and  Cardinal  Giovanni  de'  Medici,  and  an  agree- 
ment was  entered  into  that  Florence  should  pay  a 
hundred  and  forty  thousand  ducats  and  admit  the 
Medici  "  as  private  citizens  " — an  airy  subterfuge 
that  probably  deceived  no  one.  By  the  middle  of 
September  Giuliano  had  assumed  the  conduct  of 
affairs  with  as  much  assurance  as  though  the  right  to 
govern  were  hereditary  and  Florence  a  fief  of  the 
Medici  family,  though  he  so  far  kept  up  an  appear- 
ance of  popular  government  as  to  go  through  the 
form  of  consulting  the  Balia,  a  council  formed  of 
forty-eight  citizens,  almost  all  of  them  creatures  or 
clients  of  his  own. 

On  the  death  of  Julius  11.  Giovanni  de'  Medici 
was  elected  Pope  under  the  title  of  Leo  X.,  and 
Giuliano  removed  to  Rome,  where  he  was  made  Gon- 
faloniere  of  the  Church  and  Captain-General  of  the 
Papal  forces,  leaving  his  nephew,  Lorenzo,  son  of 
Pietro,  to  govern  Florence. 


THE  MEDICI.  75 

Giuliano  de'  Medici  had  married,  a  year  before  his 
death,  Philiberta,  the  sister  of  Philibert  and  Charles, 
Dukes  of  Savoy,  but  he  left  no  issue  by  her,  though 
he  was  known  to  have  had  one  illegitimate  son,  Car- 
dinal Hippolytus,  of  whom  several  portraits  by  Titian 
are  still  extant. 

Giuliano  had  received  from  Frangois  I.  the  duchy 
of  Nemours,  which  at  his  death  reverted  to  the  French 
crown.  He  was  not  an  imworthy  representative  of 
the  Medici  as  regarded  cultivation  and  intellect,  and 
when  in  exile  at  the  Court  of  Urbino  he  availed  him- 
self of  the  opportunity  to  establish  an  intimacy  with 
the  brilliant  residents  in  the  Montefeltro  capital.  The 
celebrated  Cardinal  Bembo  introduces  him  as  one  of 
the  speakers  in  his  dialogues  on  the  idiom  of  Tus- 
cany. He  died  of  fever,  only  seven-and-twenty 
years  of  age,  on  the  17th  of  May,  1516,  in  the  abbey 
of  the  canons  of  Fiesole,  which  was  built  by  his  an- 
cestor, and  to  which  he  asked  to  be  carried  when 
taken  ill.  His  remains  rest  in  the  new  sacristy  of 
San  Lorenzo,  and  he  has  been  immortalized  in  mar- 
ble by  one  of  Michael  Angelo's  greatest  works. 

LORENZO  II.,  DUKE  OF  UEBINO. 

(1492-1519.) 

Pietro,  drowned,  as  mentioned  above,  in  the  Garig- 
liano,  had  married  Alfonsina  di  Roberto  Orsini,  and 
left  a  son  named  Lorenzo,  who  is  known  in  history 
by  the  title  of  Duke  of  Urbino,  but  he,  like  his  imcle 


76  FLORENCE. 

Giuliano  and  most  of  the  Medici  family,  died  very 
young,  being  only  seven-and-twenty.  It  has  already 
been  said  that  Giovanni,  brother  of  Pietro,  and  a  son, 
like  him,  of  Lorenzo  the  Magnificent,  had  been  elected 
Pope  with  the  title  of  Leo  X.,  and  it  was  he  who  car- 
ried the  cultivated  tastes  and  the  splendor  of  his  family 
to  Rome,  and  who  gave  his  name  to  the  century  in 
which  he  lived,  as  his  ancestors  had  in  their  day  done 
in  Tuscany.  While  he  strengthened  the  influence  of 
his  family  at  Florence,  Leo  X.  made  Rome  the  centre 
of  Italian  politics.  Having  seized  the  duchy  of  Ur- 
bino,  he  invested  the  sovereignty  of  it  in  his  nephew 
Lorenzo  by  a  Papal  Bull.  This  nephew  was  not  de- 
ficient in  courage  nor  in  spirit,  but  his  overweening 
pride  and  arrogance  had  excited  the  ill-will  of  the 
Florentines,  while  his  claim  to  the  throne  which  had 
been  given  him  was  from  the  outset  disputed  by  Fran- 
cesco della  Rovere,  the  rightful  prince. 

He  died  young,  leaving  by  his  wife,  Madeleine  Jean 
de  la  Tour,  daughter  of  the  Count  of  Auvergne  and  of 
Boulogne-in-Picardy,  no  male  heir,  but  a  daughter, 
the  sole  legitimate  descendant  besides  the  Pope,  of 
the  elder  branch  of  the  Medici,  who  became  Queen 
of  France.  This  was  Catherine  de'  Medici,  wife  of 
Henri  H.  and  mother  of  three  French  kings  and  of  a 
Queen  of  Spain. 

The  death  of  Lorenzo  without  a  male  heir  led  to  a 
great  revolution  in  the  history  of  Florence.  The 
elder  branch  of  the  Medici  was  practically  extinct, 


THE  MEDICI.  T7 

the  two  other  branches  were  very  jealous  of  each 
other,  and  all  the  ambitious  projects  which  Leo 
X.  had  formed  for  his  family  seemed  destined  to  be 
brought  to  nought.  There  remained,  however,  three 
illegitimate  Medici  of  the  branch  of  Cosimo  the  Elder. 
First  there  was  Giulio,  the  natural  son  of  Giuliano 
murdered  in  the  Pazzi  conspiracy  ;  then  Hippolytus, 
natural  son  of  GiuUano,  Due  de  Nemours ;  and  Alex- 
ander, who  was  a  son  either  of  Lorenzo  II.  or  of 
Giulio. 

AU  three  were  destined  to  be  famous,  and  they 
might  all  have  claimed  the  succession,  for  we  know 
that  illegitimacy  was  not  regarded  in  the  fifteenth  or 
sixteenth  century  as  a  bar  to  a  throne.  The  first, 
Giulio,  became  Pope  Clement  VIE. ;  the  second,  Hip- 
polytus, rose  to  the  purple  ;  and  Alexander  was  the 
first  Duke  of  Florence. 

It  is  singular  that  Michael  Angelo  should  have  im- 
mortalized by  his  genius  the  two  least  distinguished 
of  the  Medici,  for  while  the  graves  of  Lorenzo  the 
Magnificent  and  Cosimo  the  Elder  are  merely  covered 
with  slabs  upon  which  their  names  are  graven,  the 
Dukes  of  Urbino  and  Nemours  sleep  their  last  sleep 
in  tombs  erected  by  the  great  artist. 

CAKDINAL  HIPPOLYTUS. 
(1511-1535.) 

Giulio,  Cardinal  de'  Medici,  when  he  became 
Clement    VII.,    instead   of   attempting    to    transfer 


78  FLORENCR 

power  from  one  branch  of  the  Medici  to  the  other, 
and  to  exclude  the  natural  sons,  followed  the  exam- 
ple of  John  de'  Medici  (Leo  X.),  and  as  he  had  more 
faith  in  the  ability  of  Hippolytus  than  in  that  of  the 
others,  he  selected  him  to  rule  Florence,  appointing 
Silvio  Passerini,  Cardinal  de  Cortona,  to  govern  for 
him  during  his  minority.  Passerini  failed  to  please 
the  friends  and  enemies  of  the  Medici  alike.  This 
was  the  period  when  the  French  king,  on  bad  terms 
with  Charles  V.,  claimed  the  inheritance  of  the  duchy 
of  Milan.  Rome  was  threatened  by  Charles  V.,  and 
then  invaded  and  sacked  by  the  Constable  of  Bour- 
bon, Clement  VII.  being  imprisoned  in  his  own  castle 
of  St.  Angelo.  On  the  17th  of  May,  1527,  the  Flor- 
entines expelled  the  Medici  for  the  third  time,  all 
their  property  being  wrecked  and  destroyed.  A 
brief  period  of  liberty  ensued  for  Florence,  but  with 
a  fresh  turn  of  events  Clement  made  peace  with  his 
late  enemies  and  a  league  was  formed  to  reduce  Flor- 
ence and  enforce  the  return  of  the  Medici.  The  city 
was  fortified  by  Michael  Angelo,  and  held  out  for 
nearly  a  year  against  the  imperial  army  under  the 
Prince  of  Orange,  being  finally  forced  to  capitulate 
through  the  treason  of  Malatesta.  Hippolytus,  see- 
ing that  Alexander  was  to  be  preferred  before  him- 
self, made  an  attempt  to  forestall  him  and  gain  pos- 
session of  Florence,  but  his  plan  was  frustrated,  and 
he  was  induced  to  return  to  Rome.  He  did  not  live 
long  enough  to  profit  much  by  the  return  of  his  family 


THE  MEDICI.  79 

to  power,  for  he  died  when  only  four-and-twenty,  and 
it  was  surmised  that  Duke  Alexander  had  a  hand  in 
his  death.  Benedetto  Varchi  gives  the  following 
kindly  description  of  him :  "  He  was  handsome  and 
pleasant-looking,  very  well  informed,  full  of  grace 
and  virtue,  and  affable  to  all  men.  He  took  more 
after  the  generous  and  benevolent  disposition  of  Leo 
X.  than  after  the  avaricious  and  narrow-minded 
Clement  VH.  He  liked  to  gather  round  him  men 
distinguished  in  art,  literature,  and  war,  and  he 
treated  them  very  liberally.  Having  come  into  an 
income  of  four  thousand  ducats,  he  made  a  present 
of  it  to  Francesco  Maria  Nolza,  a  noble  of  Modena, 
who  was  very  devoted  to  literature  and  a  great  lin- 
guist." He  was  scarcely  fitted  to  be  a  cardinal,  but 
when  it  was  known  that  Alexander  had  been  selected 
to  assume  power  he  made  up  his  mind  to  follow  the 
traditions  of  Leo  X.,  and  sustained  the  splendor  of 
his  uncle.  He  formed  a  suite,  clad  in  brilliant  armor, 
of  Turks,  Arabians,  Tartars,  and  Indians,  and  got  up 
jousts  and  tournaments.  He  had  been  a  cardinal  for 
three  years  when,  after  the  Turks  had  made  a  raid 
up  to  the  walls  of  Vienna,  he  was  sent  as  legate  to 
the  Emperor  of  Germany.  He  made  his  entry  into 
Vienna  with  all  the  pomp  of  royalty,  and  an  escort 
of  eight  thousand  horsemen,  and  it  was  upon  this 
occasion  that  he  donned  a  military  costume,  and  con- 
tinued to  wear  it  after  his  return  home.  It  was  after 
this  that  Charles  V.  had  an  interview  with  the  Pope 


80  FLORENCR 

at  Bologna,  bringing  a  Hungarian  escort  wnth  him. 
Titian  was  then  at  Bologna,  and  painted  a  portrait  of 
the  Emperor.  He  also  painted  two  portraits  of  Hip- 
polytus,  who  formed  part  of  the  Pope's  suite,  one  in 
a  Hungarian  costume,  and  the  other  in  that  of  an 
Italian  warrior  with  the  delicately  wrought  cuirass. 
Hippolytus  headed  the  party  in  opposition  to  Duke 
Alexander,  and  resented  so  openly  the  accession  to 
power  of  one  whom  he  regarded  as  his  rival  that 
when  he  died  at  Itri  in  1535  it  was  generally  be- 
lieved that  he  had  met  with  foul  play. 

ALEXANDER  DE'  MEDICI, 

FIBST  DUKE  OF  FLOREKCX. 
(1510-1537.) 

This  brings  us  to  the  capture  of  Florence,  which, 
bravely  defended  by  the  citizens,  had  been  betrayed 
by  Malatesta  Baglione.  Feruccio,  the  last  hope  of 
the  Republic,  had  fallen,  and  a  treaty  was  made  with 
Gonzaga,  the  able  captain  who  had  succeeded  the 
Prince  of  Orange  in  command  of  the  Imperial  troops. 
The  conditions  of  the  treaty  were  as  foUows :  "  A 
regular  government  to  be  established  within  a  period 
of  four  months,  it  being  always  understood  that  liberty 
was  to  be  preserved ;  the  Medici  to  return,  together 
with  all  who  had  been  exiled  in  their  cause ;  Florence 
to  pay  a  ransom  of  80,000  gold  crowns." 

Here,  again,  a  pretence  was  made  of  respecting  the 
legal  independence  of  the  Florentines.     The  partisans 


THE  MEDICI.  81 

of  Clement  VII.  insisted  upon  the  formation  of  a  coun- 
cil of  twelve  citizens,  and  recognizing  in  Alexander, 
son  of  Lorenzo  of  Urbino,  "  high  moral  qualities,  and 
recognizing,  too,  all  the  good  done  by  his  family,"  he 
was  made  a  member  of  the  Balia,  though  a  special 
clause  excluded  him  from  the  supreme  power.  The 
Emperor,  who  had  determined  to  substitute  a  mon- 
archical for  a  popular  form  of  government,  would  not 
agree  to  this,  and  he  had  Alexander,  to  whom  he  in- 
tended to  marry  his  daughter,  proclaimed  chief  of  the 
State,  with  the  title  of  Duke,  with  remainder  to  his 
heirs  male  in  the  direct  line. 

The  celebrated  bell,  "  MartineUa,"  in  the  ducaJ 
palace,  which  for  two  centuries  had  called  the  citizens 
to  arms  in  defence  of  their  liberties,  sounded  the  knell 
of  the  Republic  on  the  26th  of  July,  1531,  when 
Alexander  entered  the  city  amid  the  acclamations  of 
his  adherents. 

Even  this  did  not  satisfy  Clement  VII.,  who  was 
anxious  that  his  nephew's  authority  should  extend 
throughout  Tuscany,  and  the  reformers  of  the  State 
which  his  orders  and  will  had  created  changed  the 
basis  of  government,  suppressing  both  the  Signoria 
and  the  Gonfaloniere,  who  was  the  representative  of 
the  people.  All  traces  of  communal  liberties  were 
destroyed,  and  Tuscany,  together  with  Florence,  be- 
came for  once  and  all  a  monarchy. 

Alexander  was  a  man  of  considerable  abilities,  with 
the  instincts  of  a  statesman,  a  ready  tongue,  and  a 

6 


82  FLORENCR 

good  education.  He  was,  however,  as  we  know  from 
the  historians  of  his  time,  very  dissipated  in  his  habits; 
but  for  all  that  Tuscany  might  have  been  very  happy 
under  his  rule  if  it  had  not  been  that  the  younger 
branch  of  the  Medici  were  conspiring  against  what 
they  deemed  a  usurpation.  Alexander  had  only  been 
five  years  on  the  throne  when,  on  the  6th  of  January, 
1536,  Lorenzo,  his  cousin,  a  descendant  of  the  rival 
branch,  who  had  become  his  adviser  as  well  as  his 
companion  in  debauchery,  inveigled  him  to  come  and 
see  him  about  some  love  intrigue,  and  murdered  him 
in  his  bed. 

Duke  Alexander  had  married  Margaret  of  Austria, 
the  natural  daughter  of  Charles  V.,  and  though  he 
had  no  children  by  her,  he  had  adopted  a  boy  and  a 
girl — Giulio  and  Giulia.  He  was  the  last  Medici  of 
the  elder  branch,  and  then  came  the  turn  of  the 
younger  branch,  which  was  first  represented  in  power 
by  Cosimo  I. 

THE  YOUNGER  BRANCH  OF  THE  MEDICI. 

JOHN  DE'   MEDICI,   StJBNAMED  OF   "  THE  BLACK  BAND." 

The  first  of  the  Medici,  Giovanni  de  Bicci,  had  left 
two  sons,  Cosimo  sumamed  the  Elder,  and  Lorenzo, 
who  were  the  founders  of  the  family.  Having  given 
above  the  history  of  Cosimo's  branch,  I  may  resume 
that  of  the  younger  branch,  which  was  called  to  power 
in  the  person  of  Cosimo  I.,  after  the  murder  of 
Alexander  I.,  Duke  of  Florence.     Lorenzo,  brother 


THE  MEDICI.  88 

of  CosimOj  was  the  father  of  Piero-Francesco  (1431— 
1477),  who  was  also  assassinated;  and  Francesco 
left  two  sons,  Lorenzo  and  John,  and  each  of  these 
two  in  turn  had  a  son.  Lorenzo's  son  bore  the  name 
of  Lorenzo-Francesco,  and  his  brother's  that  of  John, 
the  latter  being  the  celebrated  "  John  of  the  Black 
Band,"  who  is  the  j&rst  notable  character  of  the 
younger  branch. 

John  deserves  a  biography,  not  less  for  his  own 
individual  merits  than  for  the  fact  that  he  became 
the  progenitor  of  princes — ^his  son  Cosimo  becoming 
Cosimo  I.,  Lord  of  Florence,  and  later  on  assuming 
the  title  of  Grand  Duke  of  Tuscany,  founder  of  the 
second  branch  of  this  dynasty.  Though  at  baptism 
he  received  the  name  of  Lodovico,  he  is  known  to 
history  under  the  name  of  John,  later  on  to  become 
the  famous  captain  so  beloved  by  his  troops. 

His  mother  was  Catherine  Sforza,  daughter  of  the 
famous  Galeazo,  Duke  of  Milan.  His  father  died 
young,  and  the  widow,  cherishing  his  memory,  re- 
solved that  in  name  at  least  her  husband  should  live 
again  in  the  person  of  her  son.  This  warrior  of  the 
future  experienced  the  very  peculiar  fortune  of  being 
brought  up,  till  he  became  a  young  man,  in  female 
garb  j  his  mother,  in  fact,  surrounded  by  the  snares 
and  temptations  of  the  Medici,  entertained  many  fears 
for  the  life  of  her  son  and  heir,  and  took  the  precau- 
tion of  withdrawing  him  from  the  dangers  of  the  world 
by  immuring  him  in  a  convent.     This  young  lady, 


84  FLORENCK 

as  she  was  supposed  to  be,  naturally  protested  against 
the  costume  she  was  forced  to  adopt,  and  her  dreams 
were  of  nothing  but  battles ;  she  was  always  organiz- 
ing sieges  and  assaults,  and  gave  great  promise  of 
immortalizing  the  name  of  the  Medici.  John  made 
his  debut  in  arms  imder  Leo  X.  in  Lombardy. 

He  soon  gained  the  titles  of  "  Invincible  "  and  the 
"  Great  Devil."  The  Republic  sorely  needed  a  valiant 
arm,  and  he  was  made  captain.  When  the  league 
was  organized,  he  assumed  the  command  in  Lom- 
bardy, and  passed,  on  the  advice  of  Clement  VII., 
into  the  service  of  Francis  I.  One  day,  near  Borgo- 
forte,  whilst  commanding  his  troops,  he  received  a 
wound  from  a  crossbow  just  below  the  knee,  within 
an  inch  or  so  of  the  wound  he  had  received  a  short 
time  before  at  the  ever-memorable  battle  of  Pavia. 
The  greatest  hopes  had  been  entertained  concerning 
him,  but  death  claimed  him  in  his  twenty -ninth  year, 
cut  off,  like  so  many  of  the  Medici,  in  the  flower  of 
life.  He  was  a  keen  warrior,  and  of  the  most  extra- 
ordinary personal  valor  ;  in  every  skirmish  he  was 
eager  to  hazard  his  life,  never  allowing  any  one  else 
to  be  beforehand  where  danger  threatened.  Till  his 
time  cavalry  had  always  decided  the  fate  of  battles, 
and  the  Italian  infantry,  which  was  quite  eclipsed  by 
the  Spanish  foot-soldiers,  considered  at  that  time  the 
finest  in  the  world,  occupied  a  very  secondary  position. 
John,  however,  had  trained  it  to  such  a  pitch  that  it 
became  invincible,  as  the  Spaniards  ever  found,  and 


THE  MEDICI.  85 

he  inspired  his  troops  with  feeUngs  which  might 
ahnost  be  termed  fanatical.  In  the  day  of  battle, 
and  when  the  time  arrived  for  distribution  of  booty, 
he  ever  left  them  the  material  advantages,  and  con- 
tented himself  with  the  glory.  He  died  at  Mantua ; 
on  the  day  of  his  death,  his  troops,  clothed  in  black, 
took  for  their  ensign  the  funeral  jBag ;  and  so  posterity 
has  known  him  under  the  name  of  "  John  of  the  Black 
Band."*  He  had  married  one  of  "the  Salviati,  by 
whom  he  had  a  son,  who  afterwards  became  Grrand 
Duke  of  Tuscany  under  the  name  of  Cosimo  I. 

COSIMO  I. 

XTBST  OBAKD  DUKE  OF  TUSCANY. 

(1519-1674.) 

Cosimo  was  only  seven  years  old  at  his  father's 
death,  and  his  youth  was  a  very  troubled  one.  Pope 
Clement  VH.,  a  Medici  of  the  elder  branch,  looked 
upon  him  with  suspicion  as  a  competitor  for  the  throne 
likely  to  press  forward  his  claims  to  the  detriment  of 
the  natural  sons  of  the  branch  protected  by  the  pontifi- 
cal court.  But  his  mother,  Maria  di  Jacopo  Salviati 
— a  woman  as  full  of  prudence  as  she  was  of  energy — 
watched  over  him  with  jealous  care,  sending  him  first 
to  Venice  with  his  tutor,  and  concealing  him  at  her 
viUa  of  Cafaggiolo  or  Trebbio,  whence  she  brought 


*  "LeBande  Nere."     His  troops  were  so  called  on  account 
of  their  black  armor. 


86  FLOEENCK 

him  back  to  Tuscany.  Now  and  again  she  would 
spend  several  months  with  him  iu  some  secluded  part 
of  Italy,  in  the  hope  that  the  fact  of  his  existence 
would  be  forgotten.  Young  Cosimo  in  time  became 
as  intelligent  as  his  mother,  and  when  Duke  Alex- 
ander was  selected  by  the  Balia  to  assume  the  reins 
of  government,  he  imhesitatingly  did  him  fealty,  and 
took  the  position  of  an  ordinary  subject. 

On  the  6th  of  January,  1536,  the  Duke  was  mur- 
dered by  Lorenzino,  who,  according  to  the  treaty 
made  by  the  Balia  with  the  Pope  and  the  Emperor, 
should  have  succeeded  him,  as  being  his  nearest  rela- 
tive ;  but  the  magisterial  council  declared  him  to  be 
unfit,  and  elected  Cosimo  in  his  stead. 

From  the  very  first  the  position  of  Cosimo  was  a 
most  difficult  one.  Threatened  by  Bologna  on  the 
one  side,  and  Rome  on  the  other ;  with  the  exiles 
(backed  even,  secretly,  by  Pope  Paul  himself)  plotting 
from  without,  and  a  large  portion  of  the  citizens  dis- 
affected, the  outlook  in  the  beginning  of  the  year  1537 
was  a  gloomy  one.  Hostile  factions  were  as  implacable 
as  ever,  and  the  Strozzi  were  recruiting  soldiers  and 
hoping  to  profit  by  the  disturbances  which  they  were 
fomenting.  Cosimo,  however,  kept  a  cool  head,  and 
learning  in  July  that  the  exiles  had  entered  Tuscany 
at  the  head  of  an  armed  force,  he  sent  Vitelli  to  meet 
them.  In  the  battle  that  ensued  Cosimo  gained  a 
complete  triumph,  the  enemy  was  routed,  and  Vitelli 
returned  to  Florence  with  his  victorious  troops  and  a 


THE  MEDICI.  87 

number  of  illustrious  captives.  Many  of  the  latter 
were  executed,  and  Filippo  Strozzi  having  died  in 
prison,  either  by  his  own  hand  or  Cosimo's  orders, 
the  Duke  remained  in  imdisputed  power. 

Cosimo  was  not  merely  Duke  of  Florence,  for  he 
had  subjugated  the  whole  of  Tuscany  ;  and  in  order 
to  consolidate  his  power  and  secure  it  from  future 
attacks,  he  fortified  nearly  all  the  towns  and  strength- 
ened the  existing  strongholds.  The  fortresses  of  San 
Martino  at  Mugello  and  of  Terra  del  Sole  date  from 
his  time.  He  gave  many  proofs  of  his  courage  and 
ability,  and  having  captured  Siena  on  St.  Stephen's 
(the  pope  and  martyr)  day,  he  instituted  an  order  of 
chivalry,  and  while  conciliating  the  Court  of  Rome 
by  his  determined  destruction  of  the  Turkish  ves- 
sels which  infested  the  coast,  he  gained  the  favor  of 
the  nobles  by  conferring  upon  them  this  illustrious 
order. 

His  position  thus  consolidated,  Cosimo  I.  was  at 
leisure  to  foster  the  civilization  of  his  subjects  and 
the  development  of  the  arts,  which  flourished  best  in 
time  of  peace.  He  was  very  fond  of  Hterature,  and 
studied  almost  daily  the  works  of  Tacitus,  two  of  his 
first  enterprises  being  the  restoration  of  the  Universi- 
ties of  Pisa  and  Siena.  He  established  and  endowed 
the  Academy  of  Florence,  and  that  of  La  Crusca 
which  was  already  in  existence  he  enlarged  and  en- 
riched. It  was  during  his  reign  that  the  art  of  print- 
ing was  brought  into  general  use  at  Florence,  and  he 


88  FLOBENCE. 

had  in  his  own  palace  a  printing  press,  from  which 
were  turned  out  nearly  all  the  works  of  Torrentino, 
BO  celebrated  in  the  history  of  Florentine  typography. 
He  was  something  of  a  chemist,  too,  and  is  believed 
to  have  been  among  the  seekers  for  the  philosopher's 
stone,  but  he  made  several  practical  discoveries  in 
his  laboratory,  including  certain  secrets  for  cutting 
precious  stones  and  for  dissolving  metals  by  the  use 
of  oxides  and  herbs.  In  this  he  was  only  following 
the  example  of  Lorenzo  the  Magnificent,  who  has 
been  erroneously  described  as  the  restorer  of  the 
glyptic  art  in  Italy.  The  Jubinal  collection  in  Paris 
contains  a  very  beautiful  box  of  tools  with  the  Medici 
arms,  made  beyond  question  in  the  first  half  of  the 
sixteenth  century,  which  was  evidently  used  by 
Cosimo  in  his  various  experiments.  It  appears  that 
he  was  very  fond  of  experimenting  on  porphyry  so  as 
to  make  it  soft  enough  for  the  chisels,  and  that  for 
this  purpose  he  steeped  his  tools  in  the  juice  of  cer- 
tain herbs.  He  confided  his  secret  to  Francesco 
Ferucci,  alias  Cecco  del  Tadda,  who  carved  the 
porphyry  statue  of  Justice  which  crowns  the  column 
on  the  Piazza  della  Santa  Trinita.  Cosimo  was  an 
unfailing  patron  of  the  artists  who  devoted  their  atten- 
tion to  the  sculpture  of  marbles  of  diflferent  colors,  in 
which  the  contrast  of  color  brought  the  work  into 
special  relief.  Francesco  Ferucci  carved  for  him 
four  medallion  figures,  which  are  still  to  be  seen  in 
the  Uffizi  Gallery,  and  Benvenuto  Cellini,  who  did 


THE  MEDICI.  89 

a  great  deal  of  work  for  him,  used  porphyry  for  the 
handsome  bust  after  the  antique  in  which  the  features 
of  the  Grand  Duke  are  preserved  to  us.  This  was 
not,  unfortunately,  the  greatest  epoch  in  Florentine 
history.  Art  was  already  beginning  to  decay,  and 
with  the  exception  of  Giovanni  da  Bologna  and  Cel- 
lini, it  had  no  better  representatives  than  Baccio 
Bandinelli,  Tribolo,  Ammanati,  and  Vincenzio  Danti. 
Donatello,  Benedetto  da  Maiano,  Desiderio,  and  Mino 
had  been  dead  for  more  than  a  century,  and  Vasari 
was  the  most  prominent  of  the  architects,  but  the 
epoch  was  none  the  less  a  remarkable  one,  being,  so 
to  speak,  the  last  flicker  of  the  flame  which  had  cast 
so  vivid  a  light  over  the  whole  of  Italy. 

It  was  Cosimo  I.,  or  rather  his  wife,  who  purchased 
from  the  Pitti  family  the  celebrated  palace,  now  the 
property  of  the  Crown,  in  which  has  been  formed  the 
world-renowned  gallery  of  pictures. 

In  order  to  connect  the  palace  with  the  Ufiizi  Gal- 
lery, which  he  had  just  had  built  by  Vasari  for  the 
tribimals  and  civil  courts,  Cosimo  asked  the  author 
of  the  "  Vite  "  to  erect  a  corridor,  carried  over  the 
arcades  of  the  Ponte  Vecchio.  He  also  connected 
the  Uffizi  Gallery  with  the  old  palace  in  which  he 
resided,  and  it  was  at  his  request  that  Ammanati 
erected  the  singular  fountain  at  the  comer  of  the 
ducal  palace,  for  which  Benvenuto  Cellini  made  a 
tender.  Ammanati  was  a  really  great  artist,  as  will 
be  seen  when  we  come  to  treat  of  Florentine  sculp- 


90  FLORENCE. 

ture,  and  it  was  he  who  built  the  Ponte  alia  Trinita, 
which  has  such  a  fine  span  over  the  Amo. 

Cosimo,  sustaining  the  traditions  of  his  family, 
went  far  towards  making  a  new  city  of  Florence. 
Buontalenti,  Giovanni  da  Bologna,  Montorsoli,  Re- 
ligiosa  Serrita,  Vincenzio  Danti,  Tribolo,  Jacopo  da 
Pontormo,  Angiolo  Bronzino,  Zucchero,  and  G-io- 
vanni  Strado  were  in  his  employ,  and  decorated  the 
palaces  and  monuments  which  he  built.  To  him 
Florence  owes  the  Boboli  Gardens,  and  many  of  her 
piazzas,  bridges,  fountains,  and  statues,  and  his  name 
is  engraved  on  many  a  commemorative  stone  in  the 
principal  streets. 

Science  and  literature  were  still  held  in  honor,  and 
although  the  greatest  Italian  names  had  disappeared, 
the  memory  of  them  still  remained.  Cosimo  com- 
pleted the  Libreria  Laurentiana,  commenced  by 
Michael  Angelo  in  the  cloisters  of  San  Lorenzo  at 
the  request  of  Pope  Clement  VII.,  but  never  com- 
pleted. He  turned  his  attention  also  to  agriculture, 
and  endeavored  to  reclaim  the  tracts  of  waste  and 
barren  land  around  Pisa.  He  was  a  patron  of  botany, 
and  appointed  to  the  professorship  of  Pisa  one  Luke 
Ghini,  whom  he  instructed  to  form  a  botanical  garden 
at  Boboli.  Then,  again,  in  order  to  facilitate  legal 
proceedings,  which  were  unduly  lengthened  by  the 
absence  of  any  careful  record  of  previous  cases,  he 
instituted  the  "  Archivio  Generale,"  in  which  deeds, 
classified  by  the  names  of  the  families  to  whom  they 


THE  MEDICI.  91 

belonged,  and  of  their  notaries,  were  deposited,  so  as 
to  prevent  any  disputes  as  to  the  rights  of  succession. 
Cosimo  was  very  partial  to  pomp  of  every  kind, 
including  jousts  and  tilting  matches,  and  after  the 
capture  of  Siena  the  first  thing  he  did  was  to  form  a 
mounted  troop  of  a  hundred  nobles,  selected  from 
among  the  most  proficient  in  riding,  fencing,  danc- 
ing, and  tilting.  He  did  the  same  at  Florence,  and 
his  reign  witnessed  a  revival  of  the  splendid  Triumphs 
organized  by  Lorenzo  the  Magnificent.  There  was 
not,  perhaps,  so  much  delicacy  of  outline  and  concep- 
tion, but  these  Triumphs,  representations  of  which 
are  preserved  to  us  in  prints  and  engravings  which 
would  form  a  Hbrary  of  themselves,  were  conducted 
upon  an  even  more  lavish  scale.  Moreover,  as  to  all 
these  qualities  he  added  that  of  a  legislator,  it  is  not 
too  much  to  say  that  Florence  and  Tuscany,  if  they 
surrendered  their  liberties,  secured  through  the 
strength  and  authority  of  Cosimo  a  peaceful  and 
assured  protectorate.  He  acted  with  the  full  con- 
sciousness of  his  power,  building  churches,  combat- 
ing the  heresy  which  was  then  beginning  to  spread 
in  Germany,  joining  forces  with  Rome  against  the 
Turk,  and  receiving  from  Pope  Pius  V.  the  title  of 
Grand  Duke,  with  the  purple  and  the  diadem. 
Charles  V.  sent  him  the  Golden  Fleece,  but  history 
says  that  the  honor  was  bestowed  more  upon  the 
wealthy  Medici  who  had  lent  him  money  than  upon 
the  sovereign  ruler  of  Florence. 


92  FLOBENCE. 

Cosimo  was  a  politician  and  legislator  of  no  little 
talent,  but  it  is  well  known  now  that  most  historians 
have  kept  back  the  truth  as  to  the  depravity  of  his 
private  life.  History  has  recorded  his  public  acts, 
and  by  glossing  over  his  crimes  and  vices  has  made 
him  famous,  but  it  is  only  too  true  that  in  a  fit  of 
passion  he  slew  his  two  sons,  Don  Garcia  and  Car- 
dinal Giovanni.  Their  mother,  the  Duchess  Elean- 
ora,  was  so  horror-stricken  that  she  died,  and  it  was 
given  out  at  Florence  that  the  putrid  fever,  then  prev- 
alent at  Pisa,  had  carried  off  all  three  of  them.  It 
is  supposed,  too,  that  Cosimo  I.  is  responsible  for  the 
murder  of  Sforza  Almini,  a  gentleman  of  Venice,  who 
had  spoken  of  him  as  the.  author  of  these  crimes. 

The  first  wife  of  the  first  Grand  Duke  was  Elean- 
ora  of  Toledo,  the  daughter  of  Don  Pedro  of  Toledo, 
Viceroy  of  Naples,  by  whom  he  had  seven  sons  and 
three  daughters.  After  he  had  been  the  indirect 
cause  of  their  mother's  death,  he  married  Cammilla 
Martelli,  the  daughter  of  an  illustrious  Florentine 
house,  whom  he  had  seduced,  and  by  whom  he  had 
had  an  illegitimate  daughter,  Virginia,  afterwards  the 
wife  of  Don  Caesar  of  Este.  It  was  at  the  injunction 
of  Pius  v.,  who  had  received  from  Cosimo  a  confes- 
sion of  all  these  crimes,  that  he  contracted  this  second 
marriage ;  but  his  wife,  though  she  appeared  at  Court, 
never  took  the  title  of  Grand  Duchess.  Cosimo  died 
on  the  2l8t  of  April,  1574,  of  maUgnant  fever  at  his 
country  house,  Costello,  and  besides  his  bust  by  Cel- 


THE  MEDICL  98 

lini,  we  have  an  equestrian  statue  of  him  by  Gio- 
vanni da  Bologna,  erected  twenty  years  after  his 
death,  on  the  Grand  Ducal  Square.  The  pedestal  is 
adorned  with  several  bas-reliefs  representing  episodes 
in  his  history.  There  are  also  many  portraits  of  him, 
mostly  by  Bronzino,  among  them  a  panel  picture  in 
the  gallery  of  Princess  Matilda  Bonafaste,  in  which 
he  is  surrounded  by  his  sons. 

FRANCESCO  L 

(1541-1587.) 

Called  upon  to  succeed  Cosimo  I.,  Francesco,  the 
eldest  son,  had  undergone  a  ten  years'  apprenticeship 
to  government  under  his  father,  and  was  therefore 
ripe  for  the  exercise  of  power.  He  possessed  many 
high  qualities,  being  of  a  pacific  disposition,  devoted 
to  art,  and  enough  of  a  builder  to  leave  his  mark  upon 
Florence.  During  his  reign  flourished  Bernardo 
Buontalenti  and  Giovanni  da  Bologna,  the  last  great 
artists  of  the  Renaissance  period,  and  he  was  him- 
self an  adept  in  the  art  of  stone  engraving,  which 
was  very  much  developed  and  improved  at  Florence 
about  this  time. 

At  the  end  of  the  sixteenth  century  Florence  was 
at  peace,  and  Francesco  I.  built  the  Pratolino  at  a 
cost  of  782,000  gold  crowns,  giving  free  course  to 
his  fondness  for  gardens,  foimtains,  and  summer- 
houses.  It  was  Francesco  who  founded  the  Uffizi 
Galleries,  which  contain  so  many  masterpieces  of 


94  FLORENCE. 

painting  and  sculpture.  The  varied  imagination  of 
Giovanni  de  Bologna  was  allowed  full  scope  in  the 
decoration  of  the  Boboli  Gardens,  and  it  was  at  this 
date  that  were  carved  the  Giant  representing  the 
Apennines  which  stands  in  the  Pratolino,  and  the 
famous  Sabine  group  under  the  Loggia  of  the  Lanzi. 

Francesco  married,  in  1565,  Joanna  of  Austria, 
daughter  of  the  Emperor  Ferdinand  and  sister  of 
the  Emperor  Maximilian,  by  whom  he  had  three 
daughters  and  a  son,  Philip,  all  of  whom  died  except- 
ing Mary,  who,  by  her  marriage  with  Henry  IV.,  be- 
came Queen  of  France. 

The  salient  feature  in  the  private  life  of  Francesco 
was  his  passion  for  the  famous  Bianca  Capello,  who 
eventually  became  Grand  Duchess  of  Tuscany. 
Francesco  has  been  represented  as  sensuous  and 
ferocious,  but  it  seems  to  me  that  his  defect  was 
rather  weakness  of  character,  and  when  he  found 
that  Florence  was  at  peace  he  left  the  conduct  of 
affairs  to  his  ministers,  concentrating  his  attention  on 
pleasure  and  art.  He  was  a  very  well-read  man,  too, 
giving  his  patronage  to  printing  and  literature,  his 
correspondence  with  Aldo  Manucio  and  Ulysses  Al- 
drovandri,  the  great  printer,  being  still  extant. 

Very  strange  is  the  episode  of  Bianca  Capello, 
who,  eloping  at  night  from  her  father's  house,  event- 
ually finds  her  way  to  the  Court  and  becomes  Grand 
Duchess.  The  story  has  been  told  in  every  book 
upon  Venice,  but  there  are  some  incidents  in  it  re- 


;;.-'A;. 


;iu(i  an<i 


Portrait  of  Bianca  Cappello 
^ronzino 


THE  MEDICI.  95 

lating  to  Florence  which  will  be  worth  narrating  here. 
Barthelemi  Capello,  a  patrician,  was  the  father  by  his 
wife, — one  of  the  Morosini  family, — of  a  daughter 
named  Bianca,  bom  in  1548.  Barthelemi,  having 
lost  his  first  wife,  remarried,  and  his  second  wife, 
Lucrezia  Grimani,  who  was  very  young,  bestowed 
little  care  on  Bianca.  The  latter  from  her  balcony 
one  day  espied  a  young  gallant,  Pietro  de  Zenobio 
Bonaventuri,  who  was  looking  at  her  with  evident 
admiration.  He  often  came  to  the  window,  and  from 
exchanging  signs  they  got  to  exchanging  letters,  and 
at  last  she  agreed  to  meet  him.  As  he  was  only  on 
a  visit  to  Venice  from  Florence,  Bianca  fled  with  him 
(28th  November,  1563)  to  the  latter  city,  where  they 
were  married,  and  it  was  during  her  husband's  life- 
time that  Bianca,  who  had  acquired  great  notoriety 
by  her  elopement,  made  the  acquaintance  of  the 
Grand  Duke  Francesco.  The  husband  shut  his  eyes 
to  their  intimacy,  and  was  given  a  post  in  the  grand 
ducal  household ;  and  as  he  himself  led  a  somewhat 
irregiilar  life,  an  opportunity  was  taken  of  inveigling 
him  into  an  ambush,  which  resulted  in  his  death. 
There  is  no  positive  proof  that  Francesco  had  any 
share  in  the  crime  ;  but  at  all  events  the  coincidence 
is  suspicious,  for  Joanna  of  Austria  was  dead,  and 
there  was  no  longer  any  obstacle  to  his  union  with 
Bianca,  a  widow.  Francesco  asked  the  Senate  of 
Venice  to  give  her  to  him  in  marriage,  and  they  were 
BO  anxious  to  secure  the  friendship  of  the   Grand 


96  FLORENCK 

Duke  of  Tuscany  that  they  readily  assented,  though 
her  name  had  been  erased  from  the  Libro  d'  Oro. 

The  marriage  fetes  of  Bianca  Capello  created  a 
great  sensation,  and  they  are  described  in  a  pamphlet 
which  has  been  lent  to  me  by  the  heirs  of  the  late 
M.  Firmin-Didot,  and  several  engravings  from  which 
have  been  reproduced.  The  Silver  Wedding  of  the 
Emperor  of  Austria,  the  anniversary  of  which  was 
celebrated  at  Vienna  with  great  pomp  under  the 
superintendence  of  Makart  the  painter,  gives  us  some 
idea  of  what  these  pageants  were  like,  but  during  the 
Italian  Renaissance  they  had  an  intensity  and  a 
piquancy  not  to  be  met  with  anywhere  else.  When 
Lucretia  Borgia  entered  Rome  she  was  followed  by 
two  hundred  ladies  on  horseback,  magnificently 
dressed,  and  each  accompanied  by  the  cavalier  of  her 
choice.  Lorenzo  wrote,  just  before  one  of  his  Tri- 
umphs, to  the  Pope  asking  for  the  loan  of  two  ele- 
phants, which  he  wanted  to  introduce  into  the  pro- 
cession, and  the  Pope,  as  he  had  not  any  of  these 
animals,  sent  him  two  leopards  and  a  panther. 

The  fetes  to  celebrate  the  marriage  of  Bianca 
Capello  were  among  the  most  splendid  ever  given, 
and  though  others  may  have  been  more  sumptuous 
in  after-times,  they  did  not  possess  the  same  stamp 
of  elegance  which  was  peculiar  to  the  age  when  ar- 
tistic taste  reached  its  zenith  in  Italy.  Each  of  the 
principal  groups  in  this  pageant  was  a  masterpiece. 
Bianca's  car  was  drawn  by  lions,  but  to  all  the  others 


THE  MEDICI.  97 

were  harnessed  horses  dressed  up  in  skins  of  wild 
animals,  or  so  disguised  as  to  resemble  griffins  and 
unicorns  ;  or  buffaloes  covered  with  elephants'  skins. 
Naked  men  and  women  had  their  bodies  painted  with 
gold,  in  order  that  they  might  represent  the  deities 
of  Olympus ;  and  all  Florence  was  mad  with  excite- 
ment in  greeting  a  prince  to  whose  defects  they  were 
ready  to  close  their  eyes. 

The  husband  and  wife  were  only  united  for  seven 
years,  and  they  both  died  on  the  19th  of  October, 
1587,  at  an  interval  of  only  a  few  hours,  in  their 
viQa  at  Poggio  Caiano.  It  was  always  supposed  that 
they  had  both  been  poisoned,  but  Litta,  a  very  trust- 
worthy historian,  in  his  "  Genealogies  of  Italian  Fam- 
ilies," puts  these  suspicions  into  words.  His  version 
is  that  Bianca  intended  to  poison  her  brother-in-law, 
and  that  her  husband  accidentally  partook  of  the  tart 
which  she  had  prepared,  and  that  she,  when  the  truth 
dawned  upon  her,  poisoned  herself  in  despair.  He 
adds  that  when  Cardinal  Medici,  for  whom  the  tart 
was  intended,  came  in,  and  learnt  what  had  taken 
place,  he  put  his  back  against  the  door  and  would  not 
let  any  one  enter  Until  he  was  assured  that  husband 
and  wife  had  both  breathed  their  last. 

A  document,  however,  which  goes  far  towards  ex- 
onerating Bianca  of  this  charge  is  a  letter  from  Vit- 
torio  Soderini  to  Silvio  Piccolomini,  in  which  he  says, 
"  The  two  bodies  were  opened  before  burial,  and 
Baccio  Baldini  and  Leopoldo  da  Barga  assured  me 

7 


98  FLORENCR 

that  in  both  cases  there  were  the  same  signs  of  corrup- 
tion in  the  liver  and  lungs.  Bianca  Capello  had 
been  dropsical  for  more  than  two  years,  and  a  large 
quantity  of  water  was  taken  from  her  body.  The 
common  people  believed  that  both  had  died  of  poison, 
but  these  stories  are  all  untrue,  and  those  who  are  the 
most  likely  to  know  think  that  they  died  a  natural 
death." 

It  is  said  that  the  body  of  Bianca  was  buried  in  the 
paupers'  grave  at  San  Lorenzo,  instead  of  in  the  tomb 
of  the  Grand  Dukes,  while  the  remains  of  Francesco 
I.  were  laid  beside  those  of  his  first  wife,  Joanna  of 
Austria ;  but  some  assert  that  Bianca  too  was  pri- 
vately interred  with  her  husband.  Leaving,  as  has 
been  said,  only  one  daughter,  Marie  de'  Medici,  the 
future  Queen  of  France,  Francesco  was  succeeded 
by  his  brother  Ferdinand.  There  are  several  por- 
traits of  Bianca  both  at  Venice  and  Florence,  the 
best  being  those  in  the  Pitti  Palace. 

FERDINAND  I. 
(1551-1609.) 

The  son  of  Cosimo  I.  and  Eleanora  of  Toledo,  who 
succeeded  Francesco  I.,  found  Tuscany  too  small  for 
him,  and  this  prince,  who  had  the  instincts  of  a  con- 
queror, was  the  first  of  his  family  since  the  fifteenth 
century  who  endeavored  to  make  his  influence  felt 
beyond  the  frontiers  of  Italy. 

There  are  two  distinct  phases  in  the  career  of 


THE  MEDICI.  99 

Ferdinand.  Brought  up  for  the  Church,  he  was  made 
a  cardinal,  and  lived  in  a  monastery  at  Rome,  with 
aU  the  pomp  that  became  one  of  his  family. 

Resolute  and  haughty,  he  was  more  feared  than 
liked  at  the  Vatican,  though  he  had  tact  enough  to 
exercise  a  considerable  influence  over  the  Sacred 
College,  and  it  is  even  said  that  in  questions  of  the 
first  importance  his  opinions  carried  as  much  weight 
as  those  of  the  Pontiflf  himself.  While  wearing  the 
purple,  his  undertakings  were  necessarily  of  a  peace- 
ful character,  and  he  concentrated  his  attention  upon 
what  we  now  caU  "  Missions."  Combining,  in  the 
true  spirit  of  a  Medici,  a  zeal  for  intellectual  research 
with  his  religious  propaganda,  he  fostered  the  study 
of  the  Oriental  languages,  setting  up  at  his  own  cost 
a  printing-press  in  Oriental  characters,  and  organiz- 
ing foreign  missions  to  which  he  attached  young  stu- 
dents, who  came  back  to  Rome  and  founded  a  college 
in  which  they  taught  Arabic,  Sanscrit,  and  Hindu- 
stani. He  also  had  translations  made  of  philosophical, 
medical  and  mathematical  treatises  from  the  Arabic, 
and  distributed  them  in  all  directions.  Fond  of  dis- 
play, amid  all  his  peacefid  occupations  he  followed 
the  example  of  his  ancestor.  Cardinal  Hippolytus, 
and  had  a  large  escort  of  cavalry.  The  Pope  on  one 
occasion  having  threatened  to  imprison  him  in  San 
Angelo,  Cardinal  Medici  took  the  bull  by  the  horns, 
and  came  to  seek  audience  of  the  Pope  with  a  cuirass 
under  his  robe,  and  when  the  Pontiff  angrily  declared 


100  FLORENCE. 

that  it  was  in  his  power  to  deprive  him  of  the  hat 
which  symbolized  the  dignity  of  Cardinal,  Medici 
replied  that  if  he  lost  his  hat  he  should  substitute  for 
it  the  iron  crown. 

Having  succeeded  his  brother  as  Grand  Duke,  he 
began  by  according  a  liberal  patronage  to  art  and 
literature,  encouraging  such  men  as  Ammirato  and 
Gabriel  Chiabrera,  building  the  Ferdinand  College  at 
Pisa,  and  that  singular  chapel  within  a  church  (the 
Medici  Chapel  in  San  Lorenzo),  which  is  so  profusely 
decorated  with  marbles  and  precious  stones,  but  which 
testifies  rather  to  lavish  expenditure  than  to  refined 
taste.  If  this  chapel  had  been  built  a  century  earlier, 
when  Brunelleschi,  Bramante,  Alberti,  Michelozzo, 
and  Michael  Angelo  were  alive,  it  might  have  been 
the  most  magnificent  in  the  world,  erected  as  it  was 
close  beside  the  Sagrestia  Nuova,  where  the  twin 
figures  of  "  Day  "  and  "  Night,"  of  "  Dawn  "  and 
"  Twilight,"  kept  watch  over  the  tombs  of  Lorenzo 
and  Julian. 

Though  Ferdinand  I.  has  had  the  credit  for  the 
building  of  this  chapel,  it  was  not  the  work  of  a  single 
reign,  but  at  the  same  time  it  should  be  added  that 
there  is  no  doubt  as  to  his  having  helped  the  archi- 
tect, Matteo  Nigretti,  to  draw  the  plans.  Francesco 
L,  however,  had  conceived  the  idea  of  a  Pantheon  of 
this  kind,  and  later  on  the  members  of  the  Medici 
family  were  buried  one  under  the  high  altar, 
another  in  the  old  vestry,  a  third  in  the  new  chapel. 


THE  MEDICI.  101 

and  so  forth.  In  this  connection  a  singular  story, 
too  well  authenticated  to  be  passed  lightly  over,  is 
current.  It  is  said  that  the  Emir  Facardino,  who 
claimed  descent  from  Godfrey  de  Bouillon,  and  who, 
fuU  of  hatred  for  the  Ottomans,  had  gone  to  Italy, 
and  been  received  by  the  Medici,  had  persuaded 
them  that  it  would  be  easy  to  lay  hands  upon  the 
tomb  of  our  Saviour  and  bring  it  to  Florence,  where 
a  temple  worthy  of  Christianity  might  be  built  to 
receive  it.  Ferdinand  accordingly  constructed  a 
sepulchre  in  the  Chapel  of  the  Princes,  and  when 
the  design  fell  through  the  sepulchre  was,  perforce, 
converted  into  a  Pantheon  for  the  Medici  family. 

I  repeat  this,  though  perhaps  it  is  without  foxmda- 
tion ;  but  still  the  reader  of  Giovannio  Mariti's  "  His- 
tory of  Facardino"  (Livomo,  1787)  wiU  perceive  that 
he  places  some  amount  of  credence  in  it.  The  only 
objection  against  it  is  that  the  journey  of  the  Emir 
to  Florence  dates  from  1604.  However,  be  this  as 
it  may,  the  chapel  was  built,  and  that,  too,  at  a  cost 
of  twenty -two  million  crowns  ;  and  when  one  sees  it, 
it  is  easy  to  xmderstand  that  there  was  nothing  exor- 
bitant in  the  price.  Its  solid  grandeur  is  very  im- 
posing, whilst  the  actual  materials  used  are  of  the 
most  precious  description  ;  it  is,  in  fact,  one  mass  of 
gold,  marble,  and  solid  stone.  From  the  floor  to  the 
cupola  the  distance  is  sixty  yards,  and  there  is  a 
marked  disproportion  between  the  statues  of  the  last 
of  the   Medici,  the  work  of  John  of  Bologna  and 


102  FLORENCE. 

Tacca,  which  stand  in  the  niches,  and  this  extra- 
ordinary raonument.  Beneath  the  floor  is  a  crypt 
containing  the  coffins  in  which  the  bodies  of  the  vari- 
ous members  of  the  Medici  family  repose.  Magnifi- 
cent equestrian  statues  were  often  erected  at  Florence 
at  this  period,  one  of  the  finest  being  that  which 
Ferdinand,  who  had  a  great  taste  for  sculpture,  raised 
beside  the  fountain  of  the  Ammanati  in  the  square  of 
the  old  Palace  to  the  memory  of  his  father,  Cosimo  I. 

His  own  statue,  which  is  that  of  an  equestrian  cast 
in  bronze  by  Tacca,  is  a  magnificent  work  of  art, 
and  stands  in  the  square  of  the  Annunciation.  It 
was  erected  by  his  son,  Ferdinand  11.  Pisa  and  Leg- 
horn are  indebted  to  him  for  many  of  their  monu- 
ments. At  Florence  he  continued  that  work  of 
adornment  which  his  father  and  brother  had  com- 
menced. His  external  policy  was  marked  by  a  cer- 
tain spirit  of  adventure,  for  this  was  the  time  when 
so  many  incursions  were  made  by  the  Turks  and 
African  corsairs,  who,  crossing  the  Adriatic,  bom- 
barded the  towns  on  the  coast,  Otranto  for  instance, 
which  was  destroyed,  and  has  never  recovered  from 
the  blow  inflicted  on  it  by  the  Porte. 

Charles  V.  took  his  fleet  to  Algiers,  Bona,  and  the 
coast  of  Morocco,  the  chevaliers  of  the  order  of  St. 
Stephen,  instituted  by  Cosimo  I.,  taking  part  in  this 
attack  against  the  infidels.  Ferdinand  fitted  out  a 
niunber  of  cruisers,  and  from  pure  love  of  glory  sailed 
with  his  fleet  for  Bona,  his  enterprise  receiving  the 


THE  MEDICI.  103 

support  of  the  Pope.  He  won  several  victories  at 
sea,  and  many  portraits  of  him  are  extant  in  naval 
uniform.  He  distinguished  himself  on  land,  also,  by 
sending  troops  to  the  Danube  in  order  to  reheve  the 
Emperor,  who  was  being  harassed  by  the  Turks.  A 
careful  inspection  of  the  scutcheon  at  the  base  of  his 
statue  on  the  Piazza  Annunziata  shows  that  he  had 
altered  the  "  Imprese "  of  the  Medici  of  the  elder 
branch,  and  adopted  the  swarm  of  bees  and  the  motto, 
"  Maj  estate  tantum."  The  most  striking  allusion  to 
this  part  of  his  career  is  to  be  seen  at  Leghorn,  where 
he  took  ship,  and  where  still  stands  a  marble  statue 
representing  him  in  military  uniform,  with  three 
Turkish  slaves  in  chains  at  the  base.  This  statue  is 
by  Tacca,  the  greatest  sculptor  in  Florence  during 
the  seventeenth  century. 

Ferdinand  cannot  be  charged  with  excessive  pride, 
nor  with  any  such  blood-guiltiness  as  tarnishes  the 
memory  of  several  of  his  ancestors.  He  died  at  the 
age  of  fifty-eight,  on  the  7th  of  February,  1609,  and 
was  succeeded  by  Cosimo,  the  only  son  born  of  his 
marriage  with  Christine  of  Lorraine. 

COSIMO  II. 
(1590-1621.) 

The  son  of  Ferdinand  was  very  delicate,  cared  more 
for  the  arts  of  peace  than  for  mihtary  enterprise,  and 
was  fond  of  poetry,  music,  theatrical  and  equestrian 
spectacles.     Jousts  and  tournaments  were  held  almost 


104  FLORENCE. 

daily,  and  the  literary  men  of  the  day  were  constantly 
inventing  entertainments,  which  were  carried  out 
by  painters  and  skilled  workmen.  Upon  one  occa- 
sion a  large  square  was  converted  into  an  inland  sea, 
over  which  ships  floated  to  represent  the  capture  of 
Bona  and  the  landing  of  the  troops.  A  record  of  all 
this  is  to  be  foimd  in  the  concetti  of  the  time,  which, 
however,  are  so  exaggerated  that  it  is  difficult  to  dis- 
tinguish between  what  is  true  and  what  is  false. 
These  later  artists  had  not  so  much  genius  as  their 
predecessors,  and  though  their  love  of  art  was  equally 
profound,  they  seem  to  have  lost  something  of  the 
spirit  of  manliness,  and  their  touch  something  of  its 
firmness.  Their  mincing  and  effeminate  method  was 
very  different  from  the  masculine  and  austere  lines 
with  which  their  ancestors  were  content ;  and,  with  its 
complicated  and  contorted  designs,  led  to  the  creation 
of  the  singular  school  which  afterwards  made  disciples 
everywhere.  The  death  of  Giovanni  da  Bologna 
left  Tacca  the  sole  representative  of  the  great  sculp- 
tors, while  architecture  was  represented  by  Giulio 
Pasigi,  and  painting  by  Cigoli,  Passignani,  Christoforo 
Allori,  and  Rosselli.  The  sun  was  fast  setting,  and 
another  twenty  years  bring  us  to  the  decadence  of 
art  in  Florence. 

Cosimo  n.,  however,  had  the  honor  of  befidending 
Galileo ;  he  recalled  him  from  Padua  and  appointed 
him  "  philosopher  and  mathematician  extraordinary," 
in  return  for  which  his  name  has  been  handed  down 


THE  MEDia.  105 

to  posterity  in  tlie  dedications  of  a  number  of  the 
great  astronomer's  works,  the  latter  likewise  giving 
the  title  of  "  the  Medici  stars  "  to  the  four  satellites 
of  Jupiter  discovered  by  him  while  sweeping  with 
his  telescope  the  azure  of  the  Florentine  sky. 

His  reign  was  short,  but  not  inglorious ;  succeed- 
ing to  the  throne  in  1609,  he  died  in  1621,  leaving 
by  his  wife,  Maria  Maddalena  of  Austria,  a  son,  Fer- 
dinand, who  was  only  ten  years  of  age  at  the  time  of 
his  father's  death. 

FEKDINAND  H. 

(1611-1670.) 

Tuscany  was  thus  governed  by  a  regency,  and 
though  the  time  was  past  when  a  revolution  was  to 
be  apprehended,  the  economic  effects  of  this  ten  years' 
minority  were  very  unfavorable.  Christine  of  Lor- 
raine, the  grandmother  of  the  yoimg  prince,  was  still 
alive,  and  she  acted  as  co-regent  with  his  mother. 
Badly  advised,  and  too  proud  to  sacrifice  their  own 
ideas,  the  effect  of  their  ten  years'  rule  was  to  im- 
poverish the  State  for  a  very  long  time.  They  took 
upon  themselves  to  carry  on  the  grain  trade  of  Siena, 
and  by  their  unskilful  administration  ruined  the  whole 
province.  They  were  liberal  to  prodigality,  and  the 
result  was  that  the  country  became  so  impoverished 
that  pawnshops  were  opened  in  Florence  for  the  first 
time.  In  the  meanwhile  the  young  prince  was  on  his 
travels.    After  a  stay  in  Rome  he  went  to  Prague,  and 


106  FLORENCR 

thence  all  through  Germany.  In  1628,  having  at- 
tained his  majority,  he  returned  to  Florence,  and 
commenced  his  nile. 

He  married  Vittoria  della  Rovere,  and  the  early 
years  of  his  reign  were  very  peaceful,  though  they 
were  darkened  by  a  ^nsitation  of  the  plague,  which 
had  not  appeared  in  Tuscany  for  several  centuries. 
The  young  sovereign  displayed  great  courage  in 
helping  to  stamp  out  this  terrible  scourge ;  but  he 
was  not  animated  by  any  martial  spirit,  and  on  the 
death  of  the  Duke  of  Urbino,  in  1631,  he  incurred 
the  displeasure  of  his  subjects  by  his  half-hearted 
opposition  to  the  claims  which  the  Court  of  Rome 
advanced. 

He  was,  however,  compelled  to  give  his  aid  when 
his  brother-in-law,  Famese,  marched  his  forces 
through  Tuscany  in  order  to  recover  Castro  and 
Ronciglione,  which  had  been  unlawfully  seized  by 
the  Pope.  After  so  many  years  of  improvident  ad- 
ministration, Tuscany  was  not  very  well  prepared  for 
a  heavy  military  expenditure,  and  Ferdinand  H.  lost 
what  little  popularity  he  had  gained  during  the  epi- 
demic by  the  increase  of  taxation  which  was  ren- 
dered necessary.  He  enjoyed  a  high  moral  credit 
abroad,  and  the  House  of  Medici  had  acquired  a 
prominent  place  in  what  we  should  now  call  "  the 
European  Concert,"  by  the  mere  fact  of  having  given 
two  queens  to  France,  in  the  persons  of  Catherine, 
wife  of  Henry  H.,  and  Marie,  wife  of  Henry  IV. 


THE  MEDICL  107 

Very  moderate  in  his  views,  and  animated  by  a 
religious  spirit  which  never  degenerated  into  fanati- 
cism, Ferdinand  acted  as  intermediary  between  Alex- 
ander VII.  and  Louis  XIII.,  and  was  instrumental 
in  the  signature  of  the  Treaty  of  Pisa,  which  prob- 
ably prevented  the  recurrence  of  the  cruel  inva- 
sions of  preceding  centuries.  His  reign  may  be  re- 
garded as  the  close  of  a  period  not  inglorious  in  art, 
for  Pietro  Tacca  was  still  alive,  painting  was  repre- 
sented by  Giovanni  da  San  Giovanni  and  Pietro  de 
Cortona,  while  Stefano  deUa  Bella,  a  gifted  designer, 
composed  the  fetes  and  the  public  rejoicings  which 
were  stiU  in  vogue.  Ferdinand  also  devoted  much 
attention  to  the  embellishment  of  towns,  and  to  the 
improvement  of  the  seaports,  notably  of  Leghorn, 
and  he  made  a  determined  effort  to  suppress  the  cor- 
sairs of  Tunis. 

The  name  of  Ferdinand  is,  however,  most  honor- 
ably associated  with  that  of  GaUleo,  whom  he  seems 
to  have  befriended  as  far  as  lay  in  his  power. 

The  great  astronomer  having  been  accused  to  Pope 
Urban  VIII.  a  member  of  the  Barberini  family,  was 
summoned,  when  seventy  years  of  age,  to  appear  be- 
fore the  tribunal  of  the  Inquisition,  upon  the  charge 
of  having  maintained  a  theory  contrary  to  that  of  the 
Church.  The  Tuscan  Court  followed  the  progress  of 
the  trial  with  keen  interest,  but  in  the  end  Galileo 
had  to  be  given  up.  After  sixteen  days  of  imprison- 
ment he  was  allowed  to  live  in  his  own  house  and 


108  FLORENCE. 

drive  about  the  city.  But  fifty  days  later  he  was 
again  arrested,  and  this  time  informed  that  unless  he 
abjured  his  errors  he  would  be  sentenced  to  imprison- 
ment for  life.  It  was  then,  according  to  a  story  which 
seems  to  be  as  baseless  as  it  is  well  known,  that  the 
illustrious  Galileo  knelt  in  submission  in  the  church 
of  Santa  Maria  Sopra  Minerva,  concluding  his  forced 
recantation  with  the  words  so  often  quoted  "  Pur  se 
muove.^^ 

He  was  subsequently  permitted  to  reside  in  the 
Medici  Palace  on  the  Trinita  di  Monte,  and  later  to 
remove  to  Siena,  where  he  remained  for  several 
months  in  the  Palace  of  the  Archbishop. 

Ferdinand  11.  finally  procured  permission  for  him 
to  return  to  Florence,  where  he  passed  the  eight  re- 
maining years  of  his  life  in  peace. 

The  epoch  was  imdoubtedly  an  intellectual  one,  for 
Ferdinand's  natural  bent  was  literary,  and  he  had 
also  acquired  some  celebrity  as  a  chemist.  There  is 
another  of  the  Medici  family,  however,  who  must  not 
be  passed  over  without  notice,  and  this  is  Cardinal 
Leopold,  who  made  himself  famous  by  his  love  of 
study,  and  his  patronage  of  all  those  who  had  distin- 
guished themselves  in  science,  literature,  and  art. 
This  suflficed,  in  a  country  like  Florence,  to  give  a 
great  impulse  to  intellectual  pursuits.  The  love  of 
natural  science  had  already  been  manifested  by  the 
earlier  Medici,  to  whom  we  owe  many  valuable  dis- 
coveries, and  the  sojourn  of  Galileo  had  stimulated 


THE  MEDICI.  109 

the  zeal  of  those  who  were  studying  physics  and 
mathematics,  for  he  founded  a  school,  and  left  behind 
him  pupils  such  as  Niccolo  Aggiunti,  EvangeUsta 
Torricelli,  and  Vincenzio  Viviani. 

This  movement  received  the  support  of  Ferdinand, 
and  of  his  brother  the  Cardinal,  the  latter  of  whom 
founded  the  celebrated  Cimento  Academy,  which  be- 
came such  a  focus  of  intellectual  splendor.  The  light 
was  about  to  be  extinguished,  but  there  was  a  final 
flicker,  and  those  who  lived  in  Florence  then  might 
have  seen  a  grand  duke  working  in  his  laboratory, 
with  the  aid  of  his  brother,  a  prince  of  the  Church, 
and  of  Viviani,  at  experiments  made  to  see  whether 
mercury  could  not  be  rendered  malleable. 

Ferdinand  undoubtedly  made  some  useful  discover- 
ies, and  he  deserves  the  credit  of  bringing  out  several 
useful  pubUcations,  and  of  assisting  men  whose  re- 
searches were  likely  to  be  of  service  to  the  cause  of 
science.  It  was  at  the  gatherings  in  the  grand  ducal 
palace  that  the  foundation  of  the  Cimento  Academy 
was  decided  upon  ;  its  career  was  short,  though  bril- 
liant. The  first  meeting  was  held  on  the  19th  of 
June,  1657,  the  assembly  taking  for  their  crest  a  re- 
tort and  three  crucibles,  with  the  motto,  "  Provando 
Eiprovando."  The  meetings  were  held  at  the  Pitti 
Palace,  and  the  members,  only  nine  in  all,  were  the 
Grand  Duke,  Cardinal  Leopold,  the  brothers  Paolo 
and  Candido  del  Buono,  Alessandro  Mascili,  Vincen- 
zio Viviani,  Francesco  Rede,  a  celebrated  patrician 


110  FLORENCE. 

of  Arezzo  of  whom  we  have  a  fine  bronze  medallion, 
Antonio  Uliva,  Giovanni  Alfonso  Borelli,  Count  Carlo 
Renaldini,  and  Count  Lorenzo  Magalotti,  who  acted 
as  secretary.  But  these  nine  academicians,  who, 
patronized  by  the  Grand  Duke,  held  their  sittings  at 
the  palace,  could  command  plenty  of  money,  and  by 
means  of  secretaries  who  were  salaried  by  the  Grand 
Duke,  they  carried  on  a  correspondence  all  over  Tus- 
cany, and  kept  the  lamp  of  learning  alight.  In  1666 
were  published  "  Essays  in  Natural  Experiments," 
dedicated  by  Cardinal  Leopold  to  the  Grand  Duke 
Ferdinand. 

The  intention  was  excellent,  but  these  savants 
could  not  agree,  and  that  jealousy  which  is  too  often 
inseparable  from  intellectual  superiority  led  to  so 
much  discord  that  Borelli,  one  of  the  most  brilliant 
of  the  academicians,  withdrew  from  the  Court,  and 
even  from  Tuscany,  taking  with  him  Uliva  and  Ren- 
aldini.    The  Cimento  lived  only  ten  years. 

It  may  be  said  of  Ferdinand  11.  that  on  the  whole 
he  was  a  great  man,  and  among  his  claims  to  celebrity 
are  his  presents  to  the  Uffizi  Museum,  his  gifts  to  it 
including  several  pictures  which  he  had  inherited 
from  the  Delia  Rovere  family,  such  as  Titian's  cele- 
brated Venus  in  the  tribune-room.  His  brother  the 
Cardinal,  who  had  a  great  love  for  the  antique,  bought 
the  famous  "  Hermaphrodite,"  the  "  Etruscan  Chi- 
mera," and  the  beautiful  bronze  idol,  all  of  which  are 
in  the  Uffizi  collection. 


THE  MEDICI.  Ill 

COSIMO  III. 

(1642-1723.) 

Brought  up  at  the  Court  of  Ferdinand  IE.,  Cosimo 
(II.  was  educated  in  a  good  school,  but,  endowed 
though  he  was  with  good  natural  gifts  and  qualities, 
which  might  have  made  a  distinguished  man  of  him, 
he  did  not  employ  them  aright.  He  inherited  from 
his  mother  a  certain  tendency  to  asceticism,  and  he  is 
perhaps  the  only  Medici  who  was  anything  of  a  fa- 
natic. 

It  has  been  said  that  the  journey  which  he  made 
through  Europe  during  his  father's  lifetime  was  more 
like  a  holiday  tour  than  the  travels  of  a  young  prince 
eager  to  see  and  learn.  He  was  accompanied  by 
Count  Maggalotti  of  the  Cimento,  but  the  companion- 
ship of  that  learned  man  was  not  so  profitable  to  him 
as  it  should  have  been. 

The  life-long  ambition  of  Cosimo  HI.  was  to  play 
a  leading  part  among  the  sovereigns  of  Europe,  but 
he  had  neither  the  talent  nor  the  energy  for  it.  He 
was  fond  of  distinctions,  titles,  and  the  pomp  of  the 
Court,  and  to  shed  fresh  lustre  upon  his  throne  he 
would  have  made  any  sacrifice.  As  the  Emperor  of 
Germany  was  pressed  for  money,  Cosimo,  by  a  loan 
which  was  never  repaid,  obtained  from  him  the  right 
to  substitute  the  prefix  of  "  Royal"  for  that  of  "Most 
Serene  "  Highness.  Florence  at  this  period  was  the 
foreigner's  paradise,  for  Cosimo  was  always  ready  to 


112  FLORENCK 

receive  them  with  great  splendor,  in  the  hope  of  get- 
ting a  great  name  for  himself  abroad.  He  was  very 
generous,  and  made  sumptuous  presents  to  his  minis- 
ters and  to  other  sovereigns. 

The  Court  of  Rome  profited  largely  by  his  liberal- 
ity, and  he  gave  so  much  to  the  Jesuits  and  mission- 
aries that  he  was  more  than  once  embarrassed  for 
money  with  which  to  pay  his  own  troops.  Large 
sums  were  also  spent  on  religious  buildings.  Struck 
by  the  fact  that  several  of  the  religious  congregations 
had  lost  the  austerity  for  which  they  were  formerly 
noted,  Cosimo  sent  to  Spain  for  some  Franciscan  fathers 
from  St.  Peter  of  Alcantara  to  found  two  monasteries 
in  which  the  discipline  should  be  stricter.  From  the 
French  Trappists  he  also  got  several  brothers,  who 
formed  the  nucleus  of  the  Trappist  monastery  of 
Buonsollazzo  on  the  Mugello.  He  attended  divine 
service  three  times  a  day,  and  took  much  to  heart 
the  religious  lukewarmness  of  the  Florentines,  who 
cared  more  for  the  externals  of  worship  than  for  the 
ideal  which  is  the  aim  of  the  pious. 

He  pensioned  and  assisted  many  authors  of  relig- 
ious books ;  and  Giuseppe  Brochi,  who  wrote  a  life 
of  Florentine  saints  and  good  men,  being  unable  to 
canonize  him,  includes  him  in  the  list  of  "  Venerables." 

In  spite  of  these  tendencies,  Cosimo  HI.  did  not 
practise  the  Christian  virtues  of  resignation  and  tol- 
erance. An  Italian  by  birth,  with  no  admixture  of 
foreign  blood,  seeing  that  his  mother  was  a  Princess 


THE  MEDICI.  113 

of  Urbino,  he  would  have  liked  to  substitute  for  the 
pleasures  and  dissipations  so  dear  to  the  grand  ducal 
Court  the  austere  gravity  of  Spain. 

Cosimo  had  married  during  his  father's  lifetime 
Louise  Marguerite,  daughter  of  Gaston  d'Orleans, 
brother  of  Louis  XIV.  of  France,  and  by  her  he  had 
two  sons,  Ferdinand  and  John  Gaston,  and  one  daugh- 
ter, Anna  Maria  Louisa,  who  married  William,  Elector 
and  Count  Palatine.  This  daughter,  at  her  husband's 
death,  returned  to  Florence,  where  she  died  in  1743, 
being  the  last  representative  of  her  celebrated  house. 
Louise  of  Orleans  entertained,  however,  the  most  bit- 
ter feeling  of  dislike  towards  her  husband,  and  never 
rested  until  she  succeeded  in  getting  back  to  France, 
where  she  took  up  her  residence  in  the  Convent  of 
Montmartre,  but  spent  a  great  deal  of  her  time  at 
Court.  There  are  several  portraits  of  her  taken  in 
the  rehgious  garb,  with  the  convent  and  heights  of 
Montmartre  in  the  background.  The  memoirs  of  the 
seventeenth  century  are  full  of  details  of  visits  paid 
to  this  abbess  of  royal  blood,  who,  with  her  dowry 
and  an  allowance  of  forty  thousand  gold  crowns  guar- 
anteed by  the  Court,  was  enabled  to  keep  up  no  little 
state. 

Cosimo,  as  soon  as  he  was  separated  from  his  wife, 
thought  about  marrying  his  son  Ferdinand,  and  when 
he  was  five-and-twenty  he  obtained  for  him  the  hand 
of  Violante  Beatria,  daughter  of  Duke  Ferdinand  of 
Bavaria.     The  marriage  was  an  unhappy  one,  and 


114  FLORENCR 

ended  in  an  immediate  separation,  Ferdinand  lead- 
ing a  very  dissolute  life  and  dying  in  1713.  The 
other  son,  John  Gaston,  whom  his  father  did  not  like, 
had  been  sent  away  from  home,  and  was  married  to 
a  German  princess,  the  daughter  of  Philip  of  Neu- 
burg,  who  was  the  heiress  of  her  father's  principality. 
He  lived  in  Bohemia  on  the  property  belonging  to  his 
wife,  a  very  singular  woman,  who  made  his  existence 
so  intolerable  that  he  left  her  in  Germany  and  went 
to  live  elsewhere.  This  completed  the  ruin  of  the 
house  of  Medici,  and  did  away  with  all  hope  of  an 
heir  being  bom  to  the  throne. 

Cosimo,  however,  had  a  brother  in  the  Church, 
whom  he  induced  to  put  oflf  his  rank  as  cardinal  and 
marry,  in  the  hope  of  perpetuating  the  dynasty.  At 
the  age  of  five-and-forty  he  married  Eleanora  Gon- 
zaga,  the  daughter  of  the  Duke  de  Guastalla,  but  he 
died  two  years  afterwards,  leaving  no  issue,  and  so 
all  the  plans  of  Cosimo  came  to  nought. 

It  cannot  be  said  that  his  reign  was  altogether  an 
inglorious  one.  Cardinal  Leopold  survived  his  nephew 
two  years,  and  if  the  Cimento  Academy  was  broken 
up,  there  remained  in  existence  a  society  devoted  to 
art,  science,  and  literature  ;  physics,  medicine,  nat- 
ural history,  and  botany  were  still  flourishing ;  and 
though  Cosimo  had  other  things  to  attend  to  besides 
the  encouragement  of  intellectual  progress,  he  did  not 
allow  them  to  interfere  with  it.  Francesco  Redi, 
Averani,  Gualtieri,  Piero  Antonio  Micheli,  and  Giam- 


THE  MEDICI.  116 

battista  Nelli  belong  to  this  epoch.  The  laboratory 
and  the  astronomical  observatory  of  the  Pitti  Palace 
were  still  in  full  working  order,  purchases  were  made 
of  instruments  such  as  the  Brugens  telescope  at 
Dresden,  the  first  pneumatic  machine  was  brought 
from  Leyden,  and  experiments  as  to  the  action  of  the 
sun's  rays  upon  gems  and  hard  stones  were  carried 
out.  The  prince  provided  out  of  his  private  purse  a 
pension  for  Micheli,  whom  he  looked  upon  as  the  first 
botanist  of  the  day. 

Then,  again,  the  Apatisti,  a  purely  literary  society, 
was  founded  in  the  room  of  the  Cimento,  and  the 
study  of  languages,  poetry,  and  eloquence  was  brought 
into  fashion  again  by  Benedetto  Averani,  the  two  Sal- 
vini,  Menzini,  Filicaia,  Canon  Mozzi,  Govi,  Father 
Politi,  and  Lami,  to  mention  only  the  most  celebrated. 
The  fine  arts  were  to  all  intents  and  purposes  dead, 
earnest  as  were  the  eflforts  made  to  revive  them. 
Cosimo  III.  had  made  over  to  the  Uffizi  Gallery  all 
the  masterpieces  derived  from  the  Delia  Rovere  in- 
heritance, and  all  that  Cardinal  Leopold  had  collected 
in  the  Pitti  Palace  became  national  property,  this  be- 
ing the  time  when  the  gallery  of  antiquities  acquired 
that  priceless  treasure,  the  Venus  de'  Medici,  brought 
from  Hadrian's  ViUa  at  Tivoli,  with  many  other  statues 
and  objects  of  price. 

Cosimo  in.  was  deficient  in  greatness  of  soul  and 
generosity.  He  was  vindictive,  not  to  say  cruel;  and 
it  is  said  that  having  found  out  that  the  great  geom- 


116  FLORENCE. 

eter,  Lorenzo  Lorenzini,  the  author  of  the  "  Exerci- 
tatio  Geometrica,"  kept  up  a  correspondence  with  the 
Grand  Duchess  Louise  d'Orleans  when  she  was  living 
in  Paris,  he  kept  him  twenty  years  in  a  dungeon  in 
the  tower  of  Volterra.  He  was  short-sighted  enough 
and  intolerant  enough  to  refuse  permission  to  the 
Huguenots  who  were  driven  from  France  by  the  re- 
vocation of  the  Edict  of  Nantes  to  settle  in  the  marshes 
outside  Pisa,  and  thus  was  lost  an  opportunity  for  re- 
claiming them  and  for  founding  a  prosperous  colony, 
as  in  England,  Holland,  and  Brandenburg. 

John  Gaston,  his  son,  and  the  last  of  the  family, 
succeeded  him  in  1723. 

JOHN  GASTON. 

(1671-1737.) 

While  heir-prestunptive  the  last  of  the  Medici 
showed  great  intelligence,  and  much  was  to  be  ex- 
pected from  him.  He  was  kind,  generous,  very  fond 
of  study,  and  in  other  respects  richly  endowed  by 
nature.  Always  associating  with  men  of  learning 
and  great  attainments,  he  studied  many  branches  of 
literature,  among  his  most  intimate  friends  being 
Benedetto  Brasciani,  Giuseppe  Averani,  Enrico 
Noris,  Lorenzini,  Father  Salvini,  and  Magliabecchi, 
the  foimder  of  the  Uffizi  library.  He  spoke  Ger- 
man, French,  Spanish,  and  English,  and  was  a  mas- 
ter of  several  dead  languages.  Fond  of  bodily  ex- 
ercises, he  was  a  fine  horseman  and  a  practised  tilter  j 


THE  MEDICI.  117 

and  he  was  also  a  good  musician  and  an  accomplished 
draughtsman. 

This  is  the  stuff  of  which  a  good  sovereign  is  made^ 
but  his  father,  who  had  no  great  affection  for  him, 
styled  him  "  the  learned  doctor  of  the  Medici  family." 
The  coldness  which  had  always  been  shown  him  in 
his  youth  kept  him  away  from  Florence,  and  his  mar- 
riage with  the  daughter  of  Philip  of  Neuburg  so 
changed  his  character  and  tastes  that  those  of  his 
compatriots  who  came  to  see  him  could  not  recognize 
in  him  the  brilliant  young  prince  who  had  been  the 
hope  of  the  Tuscan  crown.  He  gradually  lapsed  into 
habits  of  indolence  and  vice,  and  his  Court  fell  be- 
neath the  influence  of  abject  creatures,  in  whose 
society  he  lost  all  sense  of  the  responsibilities  of  his 
rank  and  station. 

Having  left  his  wife  in  Bohemia  and  returned  to 
Florence,  where  he  received  an  allowance  in  keep- 
ing with  his  rank,  he  did  not  attempt  to  maintain 
appearances  or  to  stand  on  etiquette,  becoming  a  tool 
in  the  hands  of  his  valet,  Giuliano  Dami.  This  was 
his  mode  of  life  when  he  was  called  on  to  succeed  his 
father,  and  he  made  no  change,  allowing  his  favorite 
to  govern  him.  He  was  good-natured,  but  it  was  the 
good-nature  of  indolence  rather  than  of  temperament; 
and  he  remained  shut  up  in  his  palace,  where  he 
passed  his  time  in  sensual  indulgence. 

Holding  entirely  aloof  from  affairs  of  State,  his 
subjects  did  not  even  know  him  by  sight ;  and  those 


118  FLORENCR 

who  wished  to  have  an  audience  of  him  were  obliged 
to  suborn  his  valet.  During  the  fourteen  years  of 
his  reign  he  was  not  present  more  than  two  or  three 
times  at  the  Ministerial  Council.  This  being  the  case, 
the  head  of  each  administration  was  supreme  in  his 
own  department,  and,  strange  to  say,  the  affairs  of 
Florence  were  not  any  the  worse  managed  during 
this  period. 

As  John  Graston's  habits  and  pleasures  were  inex- 
pensive, the  royal  treasury  began  to  fill  very  rapidly. 
In  one  of  his  lucid  intervals  this  prince  insisted  upon 
a  reduction  of  the  public  debt  and  of  the  taxation 
which  fell  so  heavily  upon  the  people.  Upon  another 
occasion,  prompted  by  good  advice,  and  perhaps  in 
some  measure  by  his  early  instincts,  he  determined 
to  employ  the  surplus  arising  from  his  disuse  of  the 
etiquette  and  ceremonial  which  were  formerly  main- 
tained, in  enriching  the  public  collections  with  valu- 
able jewels,  pictures,  statuary,  and  works  of  art  of 
every  description.  His  sister,  Anna  Maria,  the  widow 
of  the  Elector,  after  her  return  to  Florence  in  1717, 
also  gave  all  her  pictures  of  the  Flemish  school  to  the 
Uffizi  Museum,  and  by  her  will,  dated  April  5,  1739, 
she  bequeathed  all  the  statues,  pictures,  and  curiosi- 
ties which  belonged  to  her  as  sole  and  legitimate 
heiress  of  the  Medici  family,  to  Florence,  having 
previously  made  a  special  agreement  (October  31, 
1737)  to  this  effect. 

Gaston  also  fovmded  several  almshouses   for  the 


THE  MEDICI.  119 

poor,  and  gave  away  money  very  freely,  so  that  if 
his  reign  was  not  a  very  brilliant  one,  it  may  at  least 
be  said  that  he  possessed  some  of  the  qualities  which 
one  expects  to  find  in  a  prince.  He  was  a  queer 
mixture  of  virtue  and  vice,  but  at  his  death  the  peo- 
ple remembered  only  his  goodness  and  the  generous 
use  which  he  made  of  the  money  that  might  have 
been  spent  upon  pomp  and  show. 

His  death  occurred  on  the  9th  of  July,  1737,  and 
was  followed  soon  after  by  that  of  his  sister,  the 
grand  ducal  throne  falling  to  the  Lorraine  branch  of 
the  Hapsburgs.  The  last  of  the  Medici  was  dead, 
and  the  family  which  during  three  centuries  had 
given  Tuscany  so  many  great  politicians  and  a  few 
crowned  monsters,  was  extinct.  The  first  of  them 
were  the  most  illustrious,  giving  to  their  century  the 
title  of  "  The  Age  of  the  Medici."  It  may  be  said 
of  them  that  they  crushed  liberty  and  claimed  power 
as  a  right ;  but  at  aU  events  they  did  much  to  com- 
pensate for  their  usurpation.  The  great  period  of 
Florentine  history  is  over,  and  the  narrative  might 
even  have  stopped  short  at  the  death  of  Michael 
Angelo,  but  it  was  as  well  to  follow  to  its  decline  the 
Medici  family. 

The  eighteenth  century  is  almost  a  part  of  con- 
temporary history,  and  during  this  time  Florence 
enjoyed  comparative  prosperity  under  the  Lorraine 
dynasty,  though  the  days  of  bold  initiative  were  over. 
No  fresh  monument  was  added  to  the  list,  but  much 


120  FLORENCE. 

was  done  in  the  way  of  embellishment  and  improve-* 
ment.  The  muse  had  folded  her  wings,  and  the  love 
of  ease  militated  against  the  birth  of  any  new  genius. 
The  Florentine  people  preserved,  however,  their 
respect  for  the  past,  and  were  not  incapable  of  admir- 
ing the  capi  d'opere  on  the  Piazza  della  Signoria. 
In  relating,  as  I  have  done,  the  story  of  Florence 
from  the  first  of  the  Medici  down  to  John  Gaston,  we 
get  a  general  knowledge  of  how  the  city  came  to 
hold  so  high  a  place  in  history.  Much  might  be  said 
about  modem  Florence  as  well,  but  this  is  not  the 
place  for  such  a  study,  dealing  as  I  am  with  the  art 
of  past  ages.  Before  considering  which,  however,  I 
will  endeavor  to  show  how  it  was  that  Florence  be- 
came the  cradle  of  the  Renaissance. 


THE  RENAI8SANCR  121 


CHAPTER    III. 

THE  RENAISSANCE. 

It  is  often  asked  how  it  came  to  pass  that  Florence, 
rather  than  any  other  Italian  city,  enjoyed  the  dis- 
tinction of  reviving  in  Europe  the  cultivation  of 
thought,  of  inspiring  it  with  a  sense  of  the  beautiful, 
of  giving  the  signal  for  progress  in  every  branch 
of  human  knowledge,  and  of  maintaining  for  so  long 
a  period  the  supremacy  over  all  the  other  cities  in  the 
peninsula.  In  other  words,  what,  it  is  asked,  were 
the  causes  and  origin  of  the  Renaissance  ? 

It  is  no  easy  matter  to  analyze  very  accurately  so 
vast  and  complex  a  movement ;  for  if,  on  the  one 
hand,  there  is  something  logical  and  natural  in  this 
wonderful  development,  the  country  in  which  it  took 
place  must  have  possessed  certain  precious  gifts  which 
seconded  it,  and  there  must  have  been  in  the  soil 
which  gave  birth  to  it  a  fertility  which  contributed 
to  the  abundance  of  the  harvest.  Study  and  economy 
were  not  the  only  factors  5  there  was  a  certain  amount 
of  intuition  and  good  fortune  which  defies  analysis. 
The  mildness  of  the  cUmate,  the  charm  of  the  atmos- 
phere, the  native  grace  with  which  surrounding 
objects  are  enveloped,  and  an  admixture  of  elegance 


122  FLORENCE. 

and  attractiveness,  all  told  in  favor  of  the  movement. 
The  co-efficients  are  manifold ;  some  direct  and  per- 
manent ;  others  indirect,  remote  and  fleeting. 

It  will  be  my  endeavor  to  explain  them  briefly  in 
the  course  of  a  rapid  review  of  the  intellectual  and 
artistic  movements. 

In  his  interesting  book  on  the  Renaissance,  Burck- 
hardt,  in  the  chapter  entitled  "  The  Renaissance  of 
Antiquity,"  says,  "  The  social  conditions  of  the  time 
would  have  sufficed  of  themselves,  without  the  aid  of 
antiquity,  to  have  raised  the  Italian  nation  to  a  cer- 
tain degree  of  maturity,  just  as  it  is  certain  that  most 
of  the  substantial  innovations  then  introduced  into 
public  life  would  have  taken  place  without  the  same 
aid." 

If  this  assertion  were  correct — and  I  venture  to 
take  exception  to  it,  especially  as  regards  literature 
and  art — we  should  have  to  eliminate  one  of  the 
causes  hitherto  considered  as  among  the  most  power- 
ful, and  to  regard  the  elaboration  of  this  great  work 
as  due  solely  to  Florentine  genius  and  the  political 
and  social  conditions  of  the  time.  It  is  only  fair  to 
add,  however,  that  Burckhardt  acknowledges  that 
antiquity  gave  to  literature  and  art  a  coloring  all 
their  own,  which  may  easily  be  traced  in  form,  if  not 
in  substance. 

The  renovation,  it  jnust  be  said,  made  itself  mani- 
fest in  all  directions.  Not  only  was  there  a  return 
to  intellectual  culture,  inspired  by  the  discovery  of 


THE  RENAISSANCE.  123 

ancient  works  of  literature  and  philosophy,  but  it 
seems  as  if  the  lost  sense  of  plastic  beauty  had  been 
recovered  at  the  same  time. 

The  constant  struggle  for  independence,  for  the 
liberty  of  association  which  was  the  most  powerful 
lever  in  the  might  of  Florence,  for  the  poUtical  au- 
tonomy of  the  city,  and  for  the  possession  of  com- 
munal rights,  kept  all  the  citizens  interested  in  pubUc 
affairs,  compelling  high  and  low  alike  to  put  forth  a 
certain  amount  of  activity,  intellectual  as  well  as 
physical,  and  impressing  them  with  a  sense  of  per- 
sonal responsibiHty.  From  an  early  age  each  citizen 
of  Florence  belonged  to  some  group  and  became  the 
soldier  of  an  idea,  being  liable  to  be  summoned  at 
a  moment's  notice  to  the  defence  of  his  banner  and 
of  the  disregarded  rights  of  his  corporation. 

All  this  tended  to  create  originality  and  indepen- 
dence of  character,  and  to  excite  a  spirit  of  indi- 
viduaHsm.  The  power  of  a  democracy,  manifold  as 
are  its  dangers,  has  this  good  side — that  it  does  not 
impose  a  common  yoke  on  all,  and  does  not  put  any 
other  limit  on  individual  ambition  than  that  of  the 
individual's  capacities  and  energy.  Upon  the  other 
hand,  there  was  an  apparent  incompatibility  between 
the  constant  political  agitation  which  prevailed  during 
the  thirteenth  and  fourteenth  centuries,  and  the 
germinating  of  fruitful  ideas  and  the  development  of 
a  nascent  civilization.  This  is  a  point  to  which  I 
shall  often  have  occasion  to  refer,  though  it  is  per- 


124  FLORENCK 

haps  impossible  to  define  the  precise  causes  of  it. 
How  was  it  that  the  Renaissance  succeeded  in  taking 
root  amid  these  constant  struggles,  instead  of  being 
choked  at  its  birth  ?  How  came  it  that  while  Pisa, 
Siena,  and  Perugia  were  being  deluged  with  blood, 
artists  and  thinkers  were  able  to  work  in  peace  t 

Not  only  in  Florence,  but  throughout  Italy — in 
Venice  with  its  Senate  and  Grand  Coimcil,  in  Milan 
with  the  Sforzas,  in  Mantua  with  the  Gonzagas,  in 
Ferrara  with  the  Estes,  in  Urbino  with  the  Monte- 
feltros,  in  Rimini  with  Malatesta,  in  Naples  with 
Robert  and  Alfonso,  and  at  the  Vatican  with  the 
Popes — was  this  phenomenon  manifested ;  and  while 
neighboring  states  were  at  war  with  one  another, 
poets,  painters,  and  philosophers  followed  their  peace- 
ful pursuits,  and  even  tyrants,  as  they  were  called, 
did  not  disdain,  to  compete  for  the  laurel  crown. 

The  true  reason  of  it  all  lies  in  the  fact  that  Italy 
did  not  have  to  make  the  same  effort  as  the  other 
nations  of  Europe  to  escape  from  the  state  of 
torpor  into  which  all  had  simk  in  the  Middle  Ages. 
It  would  be  no  diflGicult  matter  to  write  a  history  of 
the  five  or  six  centuries  which  followed  the  invasion 
of  the  Barbarians ;  but  this  period,  dark  as  it  was 
throughout  the  rest  of  Europe,  was  not  without  its 
glory  for  Italy.  The  monuments  with  which  Rome 
had  covered  the  land  were  still  standing :  she  still 
existed,  Uke  a  fire  of  which  the  smouldering  embers 
alone  remain,  and  which  no  savage  incursions  could 


THE  EENAISSANCK  126 

quite  extinguish.  All  her  triumphal  arches,  baths, 
votive  columns,  pantheons,  amphitheatres,  and  tem- 
ples still  raised  their  heads,  though  entwined  with 
creepers,  which  gave  a  new  and  additional  beauty  to 
these  old  ruins,  showing  how  great  must  once  have 
been  that  grandeur,  the  remembrance  of  which  comes 
powerfully  back  to  us  in  every  moment  of  quiet  re- 
flection. It  was  the  connecting  link  between  Italy 
of  the  past  and  new  Italy.  The  grandeur  of  the  past 
could  but  raise  hopes  for  the  splendor  of  the  future. 
Greece,  which  had  been  subdued  and  then  exacted 
vengeance  by  imposing  her  intellectual  yoke  on  her 
fierce  conqueror,  was  something  more  than  a  mere 
geographical  expression,  a  vague  ideal,  a  land  of 
sentiment,  in  which  at  one  period  human  thought  had 
enshrined  itself.  It  was  for  the  Italians  a  living  real- 
ity, a  friendly  and  neighboring  land,  which  they  could 
see  far  away  on  the  horizon  of  the  Adriatic  sloping 
shorewards  with  its  pale  blue  hills.  Each  day  ships 
arrived  from  the  Hellespont,  their  sails  full  in  the 
breeze  and  edged  with  red,  recalling  in  shape  and 
color  the  ships  of  antiquity.  The  South  of  Italy  was 
down  to  a  recent  period  known  as  Magna  Graecia,  and 
colonized  by  those  who  had  come  from  the  opposite 
shore,  and  there  flourished  in  Calabria  and  other  parts 
of  Sicily  a  civilization  of  which  traces  are  to  be  found 
everywhere.  If  Christianity  had  proscribed  every- 
thing which  recalled  paganism,  the  traditions  at  least 
remained,  and  every  day  further  traces  of  civilization 


126  FLORENCK 

were  discovered  in  proportion  as  this  chosen  race  was 
found  to  have  established  itself  in  the  most  remote  vil- 
lages. These  two  influences — the  Latin  and  the  Greek 
— had  conjointly  saved  Italy  from  total  ruin  from  an 
intellectual  point  of  view ;  and  the  Florentines  were 
more  open  than  any  of  their  neighbors  to  the  influ- 
ences of  culture  for  the  most  industrious  and  gifted 
of  the  colonies  founded  in  the  peninsula  before  the 
Romans,  had  left  upon  the  soil  of  that  country  evi- 
dent traces  of  their  existence,  not  to  speak  of  art 
monuments  which  are  even  still  worthy  to  be  com- 
pared with  those  of  Greece  or  of  Florence  in  the  fif- 
teenth century. 

When  Italy  had  been  conquered,  Theodoric, 
Charlemagne,  and  Lothaire  did  not  fail  to  encourage 
intellectual  progress  and  anything  which  made  for 
civilization.  In  the  eighth  century  was  promulgated 
Lothaire's  edict,  in  which,  following  the  traditions  of 
Charlemagne,  he  provided  for  the  formation  of  schools 
at  Pavia,  Ivraea,  Cremona,  Turin,  Florence,  Termo, 
and  Vincenza ;  and  there  was  spiritual  light  even  in 
the  darkness  of  the  tenth  and  eleventh  centuries. 
The  monks  of  the  Abbey  of  Monte  Cassino  furthered 
this  development  of  learning  by  copying  Aristotle, 
Demosthenes,  Cicero,  Horace,  Virgil,  and  Lucretius ; 
and  throughout  the  whole  of  Southern  Italy  the  Latin 
poets  were  read  in  the  Roman  amphitheatres,  while 
in  the  Forum  of  Trajan  men  of  letters  would  read 
extracts  from  the  classic  authors  to  the  Senate,  who 


THE  RENAISSANCE.  127 

conferred  on  the  most  successful  competitor  a  floral 
crown  and  a  cloth  of  gold.  The  Latin  tongue,  which 
was  in  itself  a  means  of  civilization,  being  as  it  were 
the  key  to  the  lofty  conceptions  and  writings  of  the 
ancient  authors,  was  in  pretty  general  use  during  the 
first  part  of  the  Renaissance,  and  sermons  were 
preached  in  Latin  in  many  of  the  Tuscan  churches. 
Nor  was  respect  for  ancient  literature  the  monopoly 
of  a  sect  or  of  a  religious  body ;  it  was  an  article  of 
popular  faith.  A  proof  of  this  is  given  us  at  Mantua, 
where  the  statue  of  Virgil  was  decorated  with  flowers, 
like  the  altar  of  a  god  j  and  at  Brindisi,  where  the  poet's 
house  was  shown  to  strangers  with  legitimate  pride. 
Dante,  in  the  thirteenth  century,  acknowledged  Vir- 
gil as  his  master  in  the  line — 

"  Tu  se'lo  mio  maestro  e  lo  mio  autore  ;" 

and  he  also  did  much  to  extend  the  knowledge  of 
Homer,  Horace,  Ovid,  and  Lucanus,  and  of  the  great- 
est Greek  writers  of  their  day. 

But  the  influence  of  Rome  was  predominant  over 
Dante,  and  he  regarded  the  inhabitants  as  his  ances- 
tors, "  the  Roman  people  being,"  to  use  his  own  ex- 
pression, "  the  first-born  of  the  Italian  family." 

The  Latin  tongue  had  never  been  lost,  though  it 
had  been  corrupted  by  the  admixture  of  barbarisms. 
Two  men  of  genius,  Petrarch  and  Boccaccio,  endeav- 
ored to  revive  the  Greek  language,  and  their  efforts 
were  not  altogether  in  vain.     Petrarch  jealously  pre- 


128  FLOEENCE. 

served  a  MS.  of  Sophocles  in  the  original  Greek, 
which  he  could  not  read,  and  it  seemed  to  him  as  if 
the  letters,  of  which  he  was  unable  to  understand  the 
meaning,  emitted  rays  of  light  full  of  fascination. 
It  had  been  given  him  by  Leonce  Pilate,  a  pupil 
of  Bernardo  Barlaam,  a  Calabrian  monk  sent  to 
Avignon  as  an  ambassador  to  the  Pope,  and  who 
was  one  of  the  promoters  of  the  study  of  Greek  in 
the  West. 

Boccaccio,  more  fortunate  than  Petrarch,  was  able 
to  read  the  Hiad  in  the  original  with  the  help  of  a 
Latin  translation,  and  having  in  1360  received  Leonce 
Pilate  into  his  house,  he  induced  the  Signoria  to  es- 
tablish a  public  professorship  for  him  to  explain  the 
Biad,  the  Odyssey,  and  sixteen  of  Plato's  Dialogues. 

This  is  a  date  to  be  remembered,  for  the  secret  of 
the  superiority  of  Florence  in  the  plastic  arts  is  cer- 
tainly to  be  found  in  the  study  she  gave  to  the  an- 
cient monuments,  while  her  intellectual  superiority  is 
not  less  certainly  due  to  the  discovery  and  diflFasion 
of  the  MSS.  of  ancient  writers.  The  manifestation 
of  the  genius  of  Dante,  though  he  expressed  himself 
in  the  vulgar  tongue,  was  in  a  measure  brought  about 
by  these  influences  seemingly  so  remote. 

It  may  naturally  be  asked  how  it  came  to  pass  that 
while  in  the  reign  of  Augustus  Greek  was  spoken  at 
Rome,  even  by  women  who  prided  themselves  on 
their  intellectual  superiority,  that  language  fell  into 
disuse,  and  was  soon  unknown  to  all  save  a  select 


THE  BENAISSANCE.  129 

few.  The  influence  of  Greek  philosophy  and  litera- 
ture in  Italy  continued  to  increase  under  the  Anto- 
nines;  Marcus  Aurelius  wrote  his  "Maxims"  in 
Greek,  and  two  centuries  later  the  Emperor  Julian 
used  it  in  preference  to  his  own  language  in  his  de- 
fence of  Polytheism. 

The  heaviest  blow  to  Greek  influence  in  the  West 
was  dealt  by  Christianity  previous  to  the  Barbarian 
invasion.  The  superb  temples  built  in  honor  of  the 
three  thousand  divinities,  "  among  whom  there  was 
not  a  single  atheist,"  and  the  charm  of  the  writings 
of  the  great  heathen  authors,  testified  too  strongly  to 
the  unquestionable  superiority  of  ancient  genius  to 
be  left  intact.  Temples  were  destroyed,  images  were 
broken,  the  gods  were  proscribed  5  and  the  intellectual 
level  of  society  had  sunk  so  low  that  no  one  rose  to 
protest  against  this  destruction  of  monuments  of  art 
and  of  Greek  literature.  The  imagination  reels  at 
the  thought  of  these  holocausts  ofi*ered  up  on  the  altar 
of  the  true  God,  the  more  so  as  it  was  not  the  out- 
come of  sudden  violence,  as  when  the  Arabs  invaded 
Asia,  but  a  methodical  system  not  less  fatal  in  its  re- 
sults. A  few  elevated  minds  may  have  risen  supe- 
rior to  prejudice,  and  found  the  practice  of  the  new 
creed  not  incompatible  with  an  admiration  for  ^schy- 
lus,  Sophocles,  Euripides,  Xenophon,  Aristotle,  and 
Plato  J  but  St.  Jerome  himself,  though  he  did  not 
commit  their  writings  to  the  flames,  would  not  read 
them.     The  work  of  destruction  was  completed  by 


180  FLORENCK 

the  official  and  infallible  judgment  of  the  Holy  See, 
for  in  the  Council  held  at  Carthage  all  prelates  were 
forbidden  to  read  the  heathen  writers,  and  from  that 
time  all  intellectual  relation  between  Greeks  and 
Latins  was  at  an  end,  the  Greek  tongue,  in  which  so 
many  immortal  works  had  been  written,  soon  becom- 
ing unintelligible. 

The  transfer  of  the  Roman  Empire  to  Constanti- 
nople was  followed  by  the  Barbarian  invasion  of  Italy ; 
but  Greek  literature  found  a  temporary  home  at 
Ravenna,  on  the  shores  of  the  Adriatic,  the  last 
refuge  of  the  power  of  the  Roman  Emperors,  from 
Theodoric,  King  of  the  Goths,  whose  intellectual 
quaUties  were  far  above  those  of  his  followers. 

A  few  of  the  successors  of  St.  Peter  also  extended 
their  patronage  to  Greek  literature,  and  a  hundred 
years  after  Theodoric's  day  the  Roman  schools  which 
had  been  closed  during  the  invasion  were  reopened. 
The  Church,  however,  still  regarded  the  language  and 
literature  of  Greece  as  tending  to  heresy,  and  the 
Latin  tongue,  which  alone  was  taught,  had  become 
too  corrupted  by  Barbarian  idioms  for  the  study  of 
its  literature  to  be  general. 

While  the  West  was  thus  relapsing  into  darkness,  it 
is  interesting  to  see  how  far  the  East  had  preserved  the 
precious  patrimony  handed  down  to  it. 

Li  the  fourth  century  of  our  era  the  separation 
took  place,  and  Constantinople  became  the  scene  of 
religious  quarrels  and  heresies,  the  Greeks  imitating 


THE  RENAISSANCE.  131 

the  conduct  of  Christian  bishops,  and  destroying  in 
their  turn  the  manuscripts  of  Menander,  Diphilus, 
Apollodorus,  Philemon,  Alexis,  Sappho,  Corinna, 
Anacreon,  Mimnermus,  Bion,  Alcman,  and  Alcseus, 
in  the  interests  of  religion.  There  remained  a  few 
historians  of  talent,  commentators,  geographers,  and 
doctors,  but  not  a  single  poet  of  note,  and  the  deca- 
dence of  literature  followed  close  upon  the  political 
collapse. 

A  similar  scourge  to  that  which  brought  about  the 
downfall  of  civilization  in  the  West  was  about  to  com- 
plete the  work  of  destruction  in  Greece.  In  the 
twelfth  century  the  Arabs  took  possession  of  all  the 
Greek  colonies  in  Asia  and  Africa,  and  their  invasion 
led  gradually  to  the  suppression  of  the  Greek  tongue, 
the  use  of  which  was  confined  to  Greece  strictly  so 
called. 

It  was  not,  however,  the  Caliph  Omar  who  burned 
the  library  of  the  Ptolemys,  for  this  had  already  been 
done  by  the  soldiers  of  Caesar,  and  the  Serapeum, 
which  had  escaped  when  Alexandria  was  captured  by 
the  Roman  general,  was  sacked  by  Theodosius.  It 
may  even  be  argued  that,  setting  aside  the  substitu- 
tion of  the  Koran  for  the  Bible,  and  the  suppression 
of  the  Greek  tongue,  the  Arabs  imder  Haroun-el- 
Raschid  played  a  civilizing  part.  But  there  was 
worse  to  come;  and  when  the  Ottoman  Turks,  hav- 
ing vanquished  the  Arabs  in  Asia,  advanced  upon 
Europe  and  threatened  even  to  dislodge  the  Greek 


182  FLORENCE. 

language  from  the  islands  in  which  it  had  found  a  last 
refuge,  it  was  Christianity  which  came  to  the  rescue. 
In  order  to  atone  for  the  destruction  of  the  ancient 
authors,  it  brought  to  the  West  the  writings  of  the 
Church  Fathers,  and  Greek  became  the  liturgical 
tongue  of  the  Eastern  Church.  When  the  whole 
territory  had  fallen  beneath  the  yoke  of  the  Mussul- 
mans, the  West  became  a  refuge  for  those  exiles,  who 
may  truly  be  called  the  real  initiators  of  the  Renais- 
sance. 

Before  the  capture  of  Constantinople,  which  dis- 
persed the  last  of  the  Greek  savants,  the  Byzantine 
emperors,  threatened  by  the  Turks,  endeavored  to 
make  friends  in  the  Latin  world,  and  to  bring  about 
a  conciliation  of  the  Churches.  In  a  Council  held  at 
Vienna  in  1311,  anxious  to  create  a  bond  of  union 
between  the  two  Churches,  the  Bishops  ordered  that 
Latin  should  be  taught  in  a  certain  number  of  Italian 
towns.  Upon  the  other  hand,  the  monks  of  the  order 
of  St.  Basilius,  who  were  established  in  Calabria,  em- 
ployed Greek  in  their  liturgy,  and  were  much  in- 
terested in  effecting  the  reconciliation  of  the  Eastern 
and  Western  Churches,  while  they  were  among  the 
most  hearty  promoters  of  the  study  of  Greek. 

The  Calabrian  monk,  Bernardo  Barlaam  of  Semi- 
nara,  who  acted  as  teacher  to  Petrarch,  had  been  one 
of  the  intermediaries  between  the  two  Churches,  and 
this  explains  his  presence  at  the  Papal  Court  at  Avig- 
non.    The  first  public  chair  of  Greek  was  founded 


THE  RENAISSANCE.  133 

by  his  pupil  Pilate  at  Florence  in  1360,  at  which 
time,  as  we  find  from  Petrarch's  letters,  there  were 
not  ten  people  in  Italy  who  could  read  Homer,  even 
in  the  Latin  translation. 

Soon  after  this  Manuel  Chrysoloras  came  to  seek 
the  succor  of  Italy  against  the  Turks,  and  was  per- 
suaded to  occupy  the  chair  left  vacant  by  Pilate.  He 
lectured  at  Milan,  Paris,  and  Rome ;  wrote  a  Greek 
grammar ;  and  having  found  in  Palla  Strozzi  (1372— 
1462)  a  liberal  patron,  who  would  help  him  to  pro- 
pagate his  ideas,  got  from  Constantinople  as  many 
Greek  manuscripts  as  he  could,  and  revealed  to  the 
West  the  works  of  Plato  and  Plutarch,  the  politics 
of  Aristotle,  and  the  geography  of  Ptolemy. 

It  was  Florence  that  gave  the  first  impulse  to  the 
study  of  Greek  by  the  creation  of  the  chair  occupied 
by  Pilate  in  1360,  and  from  that  date  the  progress 
was  very  rapid.  Guarini  of  Verona  succeeded  Chrys- 
oloras,  and  when  Cosimo  the  Elder  had  driven  Strozzi 
into  exile,  he  continued  to  encourage  the  study  of 
Greek.  Leonardo  Bruni  Aretino,  another  pupil  of 
Chrysoloras,  translated  Aristotle's  "Ethics,"  the  "Dis- 
courses" of  ^schines,  and  the  "First  Punic  War" 
of  Polybius,  while  Niccolo  (1363-1437)  created  a  new 
science — that  of  philological  criticism.  The  Floren- 
tines were  not  content  with  possessing  the  mere  texts, 
but  did  their  best  to  have  them  in  their  primitive  ac- 
curacy and  to  make  the  most  out  of  them.  Thus  we 
reach  the  zenith  of  the  movement,  brought  about  by 


184  FLORENCE. 

the  presence  of  the  many  Greeks  who  came  to  attend 
the  Council  at  Florence,  and  afterwards  by  the  emi- 
gration which  followed  on  the  capture  of  Constanti- 
nople by  the  Turks.  George  of  Trebizond,  Theo- 
dorus  Gaza,  Argyropulos,  Gemistes  Pletho,  and 
Aurispa  (who  himself  brought  back  to  Florence,  from 
his  journey  in  the  East,  232  Greek  manuscripts), 
preceded  Marcilio  Ficino  and  the  Academy  of  Plato, 
which  held  its  meetings  in  the  Careggi  Gardens  under 
the  presidency  of  Lorenzo  the  Magnificent  and  Poli- 
tian. 

Before  showing  how  Florence  carried  all  Italy  with 
her,  and  giving  an  idea  of  what  the  movement  was 
in  Florence  itself  when  that  city  reached  its  apogee 
under  Lorenzo,  we  must  cast  a  look  backwards  at 
the  parallel  influences  which  had  their  place  in  the 
composition  of  Florentine  genius.  It  is  necessary  to 
mark  also  how  the  vulgar  tongue  was  slowly  evolved; 
composed  like  a  bouquet  of  flowers  of  the  choicest 
and  most  appropriate  expressions  from  the  various 
dialects  of  Italy,  and  forming  the  new  language  in 
which  Dante,  in  the  thirteenth  century,  wrote  his 
immortal  poem. 

The  constitution  of  an  exarchate  at  Ravenna, 
which  lasted  until  the  eighth  century,  caused  Byzan- 
tine influences  to  predominate  throughout  Tuscany ; 
and  though  it  is  difiicult  to  say  precisely  how  far  they 
prevailed  in  literature,  we  have  the  clearest  evidence 
of  their  existence  in  the  plastic  arts.     In  the  baptis- 


THE  RENAISSANCE.  135 

tery  of  San  Giovanni,  one  of  the  most  ancient  mon- 
uments of  Florence,  the  ornamentation  of  the  ceiling 
is  unmistakably  Greek,  reminding  one  of  the  mosaics 
in  the  tomb  of  Galla  Placidia  at  Ravenna  and  the 
beautiful  mosaics  of  San  Vitale,  where  the  Empress 
Theodora,  painted  like  a  courtesan,  and  the  Emperor 
Justinian,  are  represented  in  the  midst  of  an  Oriental 
Court,  composed  of  eunuchs,  Nubians,  and  Persians. 
It  was  Cimabue,  the  first  leader  of  the  Florentine 
school,  who  shook  off  the  yoke  of  Byzantine  influ- 
ences, and  brought  the  artists  of  his  day  back  to  the 
study  of  nature. 

In  sculpture  Niccolo  Pisano  and  other  natives  of 
Pisa  led  the  way,  though  it  is  only  just  to  add  that 
they  took  their  inspiration  from  national  art,  and 
learned  much  from  the  sarcophagi  of  Pisa,  which  had 
been  carved  two  centuries  before  the  Christian  era 
by  the  Roman  sculptors  of  whom  Strabo  wrote  in 
such  eulogistic  terms. 

The  art  and  the  science  of  the  Arabs,  their  un- 
rivalled taste,  and  their  thorough  though  limited  work- 
manship, also  exercised  an  unquestionable  influence 
on  the  movement.  Masters  of  Italy  from  the  ninth 
to  the  eleventh  century,  they  could  not  fail  to  impress 
something  of  their  style  and  characteristics — their  love 
of  color,  their  liking  for  rich  materials  and  complex 
decoration — upon  those  with  whom  they  were  in 
constant  communication  at  aJl  the  ports  of  the  Medi- 
terranean. 


186  FLORENCE. 

The  Arabs  were  especially  fond  of  richly  chased 
armor,  delicately  wrought  jewels,  brilliant  enamels, 
embossed  leathers,  and  elaborately  caparisoned  horses; 
and,  accustomed  to  camp  life,  they  were  wont,  even 
in  times  of  peace,  to  trace  the  images  of  war;  thus  the 
jousts  and  tournaments  for  which  Italy  became  fa- 
mous derived  much  of  their  splendor  from  the  im- 
itation, conscious  or  unconscious,  of  these  Arab  pag- 
eants. 

The  House  of  Swabia,  when  it  had  claimed  the 
throne  of  the  Roman  Csesars,  never  exercised  more 
than  a  nominal  and  intermittent  authority  over  Italy, 
and  its  genius  differed  so  fundamentally  from  that  of 
the  Tuscans  that  the  traces  which  it  left  behind  it 
were  very  faint.  Personal  energy  of  character,  how- 
ever, has  always  had  great  influence  in  Italy,  and  the 
remarkable  cultivation  of  Frederick  Barbarossa's  de- 
scendant, Frederick  11.,  had  a  wide-spreading  effect. 
His  reign  was  the  prologue  of  the  Renaissance,  and 
he  probably  had  something  to  do  with  the  tendency 
shown  by  the  Florentines  to  shake  off  all  religious 
influence  in  the  work  of  civilization.  He  leaned  to 
the  side  of  the  Arabs  rather  than  of  the  Romans,  and 
this  sufficed  to  raise  an  accusation  of  atheism  against 
him.  He  foimded  the  University  of  Naples  in  1224, 
spoke  Italian,  French,  Greek,  and  Arabic,  was  a  poet 
and  a  dandy,  and  was  so  exempt  from  prejudice  that 
he  admitted  Arabs,  however  poor,  to  his  Court  if  they 
were   distinguished   in   literature   or   science.      His 


THE  BENAISSANCE.  137 

secretary  was  a  Mussulman,  his  doctor  a  Spanish 
Jew,  and  his  metaphysician  an  EngUshman,  Michael 
Scotus.  The  spirit  of  tolerance  which  he  displayed 
is  one  of  the  distinctive  marks  of  the  Renaissance, 
and  this  was  why  the  movement  was  held  in  suspic- 
ion by  a  few  extreme  sectaries. 

The  Normans,  who  had  gained  possession  of  Magna 
Graecia,  driving  out  the  Byzantines  and  Saracens, 
capturing  Messina,  Catania,  and  Palermo,  and  found- 
ing dynasties  in  Apulia,  Calabria,  and  Sicily,  siding 
at  one  time  with  the  Pope  and  at  another  with  the 
Emperor,  were  beyond  doubt  a  valiant  race ;  but 
they  were  less  apt  to  receive  than  to  impress  upon 
others  any  intellectual  influence.  The  singular  monu- 
ments which  they  have  left  at  Lucera,  Canosa,  and 
Venosa  do  no  more  than  attest  to  the  reality  of  the  con- 
quests made  by  Eoger,  Robert  Guiscard,  the  sons  of 
Tancred  of  Hauteville,  and  the  heroes  of  "  Jerusalem 
DeHvered,"  and  it  is  evident,  when  one  examines  the 
shape  and  character  of  these  works  of  art,  that  those 
who  reared  them  were  dominated  by  the  influence  of 
what  they  had  seen  among  the  Arabs  whom  they  had 
been  combating  in  the  East.  The  Normans  made 
no  attempt  to  alter  the  course  of  the  civilization, 
higher  than  their  own,  which  they  found  in  these 
provinces,  and  it  must  be  said  to  their  credit  that 
they  left  the  holders  of  the  soil  in  possession  of  their 
legal  rights,  the  two  races  living  side  by  side  in  per- 
fect peace  |    so  much  so,  that  when  they  were  sue- 


138  FLORENCR 

ceeded  by  Frederick  IT.  the  Arab  civilization  was 
found  intact. 

The  troubadours,  driven  from  France  by  the  cru- 
sade against  the  Albigenses,  also  had  some  influence 
upon  the  genius  not  only  of  Italy,  but  of  Florence. 
This  is  proved  by  the  frequent  imitations  of  their 
works,  and  the  language  of  Florence  teemed  with 
expressions  and  idioms  borrowed  from  the  tongue  of 
Provence. 

Three  sovereigns  of  Southern  Italy  wrote  poems 
in  that  tongue,  and  the  troubadours  also  inculcated 
upon  the  Italians  a  chivalrous  regard  for  the  female 
sex,  and  that  predilection  for  fine-drawn  arguments 
which  later  degenerated  into  the  Concetti. 

These  are  the  main  influences  and  the  various 
causes  which  brought  about  the  Renaissance,  and 
apart  from  them  all  the  rest  is  due  to  the  peculiar 
genius  of  Florence,  to  the  national  temperament,  and 
to  circimistances  of  race  and  politics.  Much  might 
be  said,  too,  of  the  gradual  formation  of  the  vulgar 
tongue,  and  of  its  employment  as  the  universal  vehicle 
of  thought  throughout  Italy  when  it  came  to  be  used 
by  Dante,  Petrarch,  Boccaccio,  and  the  many  other 
great  writers  who  preceded  Machiavelli,  Guicciardini, 
and  the  learned  men  who  discussed  antiquity  with 
Cosimo  and  Lorenzo  beneath  the  wide-spreading  trees 
of  Careggi. 


ILLUSTKIOUS  FLORENTINES.  189 


CHAPTER    IV. 

ILLUSTRIOUS  FLORENTINES. 

I  MUST  now,  turning  aside  from  the  Renaissance 
movement,  say  something  about  the  men  who  con- 
tributed the  most  towards  its  development,  not  only 
in  Florence  and  throughout  Tuscany,  but  at  Rome  as 
well,  whither  many  of  them  were  summoned  by  the 
popes  in  the  fifteenth  and  sixteenth  centuries. 

I  will  only  speak  of  those  who  were  bom  in  Flor- 
ence itself,  though  to  many  who  were  natives  of  other 
parts  of  Italy  that  city  was  a  second  home.  Upon 
the  other  hand,  it  will  be  seen  that  a  native  of  Tus- 
cany, Leonardo  da  Vinci,  who  takes  rank  with  Dante 
and  Michael  Angelo,  was  almost  a  stranger  in  his  own 
country,  which  possesses  none  of  his  greatest  works, 
and  he  is  even  claimed  as  one  of  their  own  by  another 
school.  The  name  of  those  men  of  genius,  exclusive 
of  the  artists,  who  gave  Florence  her  unrivalled  posi- 
tion, is  Legion,  beginning  with  Dante  and  ending 
with  Galileo.  The  most  illustrious  were  Petrarch, 
Boccaccio,  Marcilio  Ficino,  Pico  della  Mirandola, 
Machiavelli,  Brunelleschi,  PoUtian,  Alberti,  Savona- 
rola— ^that  is  to  say,  historians,  poets,  artists,  and 
philosophers — while  inferior  to  them  in  talent,  but 


140  FLORENCK 

still  worthy  of  mention  as  having  taken  part  in  the 
great  movement  of  the  time,  are  Coluccio  Salutati, 
Passavanti,  Giovanni  Villani,  Franco  Sacchetti,  Bon- 
accorso  Pitti,  Poggio  Bracciolini,  Agnolo  Pandolfini, 
Traversari,  Alamanni,  Benivieni,  Burchiello,  Rinuc- 
cini,  Acciaiuoli,  Panormita,  Pulci,  Cristoforo  Landino, 
Guicciardini,  and  the  grand  secretaries  of  the  Repub- 
lic, Leonardo  Bruni  and  Carlo  Marsuppini.  I  will 
endeavor  to  describe  the  special  characteristics  and 
individual  part  played  by  each  one  of  these  in  the 
mighty  movement  of  his  age. 

The  most  illustrious  thinkers  and  writers  of  the 
fifteenth  century  remain,  so  to  speak,  unknown,  so 
far  as  their  fleshly  representation  goes,  for  very  few 
portraits  were  painted  in  those  days.  The  beautiful 
but  stem  face  of  Dante  was,  however,  handed  down 
to  posterity  by  Giotto  in  a  fresco  unfortunately  so 
dimmed  by  age  and  blurred  by  an  inartistic  restora- 
tion that  the  features  are  very  indistinct.  There  is 
a  fresco  of  Pico  della  Mirandola  as  a  child  by  Luini  j 
and  Alberti,  who  was  the  friend  of  many  of  the  medal- 
lionists,  lives  in  the  likeness  of  him  by  Matteo  da 
Pasti ;  in  another  at  Rimini,  over  the  tomb  of  Sigis- 
mimd  Malatesta ;  and  in  two  bronzes,  one  presented 
to  the  Louvre  Gallery  by  His  de  la  Salle,  and  the 
other  in  the  Dreyfus  Collection. 

The  great  medallionists  of  the  fifteenth  century 
have  transmitted  to  us  the  features  of  Cosimo  the 
Elder,  Lorenzo,  and  of  several  other  members  of  the 


ILLUSTEIOUS  FLORENTINES.  141 

Medici  family,  and  there  are  still  extant  some  very 
perfect  busts  by  Benedetto  da  Majano,  Mino  da  Fie- 
sole,  Desiderio  da  Settignano,  and  Benvenuto  Cellini. 
But  from  contemporary  art  in  the  strict  sense  of  the 
term,  from  which  one  would  prefer  to  have  the  por- 
traits of  all  these  celebrities,  there  is  but  little  to  be 
derived.  The  fifteenth  century  cannot,  as  I  have 
said,  boast  of  any  portrait  painters  except  Piero 
della  Francesca  and  Pollaiolo  ;  though  fifty  years 
afterwards,  when  the  art  of  printing,  recently  dis- 
covered, favored  the  spread  of  learning,  a  few  artists 
illustrated  the  biographies  which  were  published. 
The  sixteenth  century  gives  us  a  wider  choice  of 
subjects,  the  Pitti  and  Uffizi  Palaces  containing 
many  pictures  by  contemporary  masters,  those  by 
Bronzino  being  almost  entirely  confined  to  the  Medici 
family ;  while  a  careful  search  of  the  principal  collec- 
tions, musexmis,  and  libraries  in  Europe  reveals  like- 
nesses of  the  most  celebrated  masters  and  artists  of 
the  day. 

DANTE. 
(1265-1321.) 

Dante,  as  is  well  known,  died  in  exile,  and  the 
monument  afterwards  erected  to  him  by  the  people 
of  Florence  in  the  Pantheon  of  Santa  Croce  does  not 
contain  his  bones  j  while  the  tomb  at  Ravenna  in 
which  he  is  buried  was  only  bmlt  after  his  death  by  a 
Venetian,  the  proveditore  of  Ravenna,  as  an  homage 
to  the  greatest  of  Italian  poets.     Cacciaguida,  whose 


142  FLORENCE. 

name  is  recorded  in  the  history  of  Tuscany  as  hav- 
ing taken  part  in  the  Crusade  of  1147,  had  a  son 
Alighieri,  and  he  in  1265  became  the  father  of  the 
future  author  of  the  "  Divine  Comedy." 

An  ancient  custom  prevailed  in  Florence  of  cele- 
brating the  coming  of  May  every  year — a  subject 
treated  by  many  of  the  miniature  painters  of  the 
time,  imder  the  title  of  "  Primavera."  On  May-day 
the  whole  city  kept  holiday.  The  maidens,  arrayed 
in  white  and  with  the  May  blossoms  in  their  hands, 
formed  long  processions  and  danced  on  the  sprouting 
grass,  the  young  men  joining  in  the  pastime ;  and 
while  the  first  day  of  summer  was  dedicated  to  the 
Virgin,  the  return  of  fine  weather  and  the  budding 
of  the  flowers  was  celebrated  after  the  ancient  rites. 
It  was  on  a  May-day  that  Alighieri  took  his  son  to 
the  house  of  a  neighbor,  Folco  de  Portinari,  who  had 
invited  all  the  children  of  his  friends.  Here  it  was 
that  he  met  Beatrice,  then  only  nine  years  of  age, 
gay  and  beautiful  in  her  childish  fashion,  and  he  re- 
ceived her  image  into  his  heart  with  so  much  affec- 
tion that  it  never  again  departed  from  him.  Eigh- 
teen years  afterwards  he  wrote  the  "  Vita  Nuova," 
and  Beatrice  had  died  in  the  flower  of  youth.  Full 
of  melancholy,  oppressed  by  persecution,  and  sur- 
rounded by  enemies,  he  collected  his  thoughts  about 
him  to  record  the  recollections  of  the  beautiful  vision 
in  which  she  appeared  to  him  "  clothed  in  noble  crim- 
son," simple,  candid,  and  gentle.     He  tells  us  how  to 


ILLUSTRIOUS  FLORENTINES.  143 

look  at  her  made  a  man  pure  and  good,  and  this 
youthful  passion  shed  its  influence  upon  his  whole 
future  life. 

Dante  lost  his  father  in  childhood.  He  studied  under 
the  celebrated  Brunetto  Latini,  the  secretary  of  the 
commune  and  the  author  of  the  "  Tesoro "  and  the 
"  Tesoretto."  At  eighteen  the  poetic  instinct  awoke 
in  him,  and  later  he  wrote  that  strange  love-dream  of 
which  Beatrice  was  the  heroine.  He  related  his 
dream  to  several  of  the  master-poets  of  the  day, 
some  of  them,  such  as  Guido  Cavalcanti  and  Cino  da 
Pistoia,  replying  to  him  in  kindly  and  encouraging 
terms,  while  one  or  two,  including  Dante  da  Majano, 
treated  him  as  moon-struck,  and  advised  him  to  take 
a,  dose  of  hellebore. 

From  1283  to  1289  Dante  vrrote  almost  inces- 
santly, conscious  of  his  own  powers,  and  having 
already,  we  are  told,  conceived  the  plan  of  the  work 
which  was  to  immortalize  his  name.  But  he  was 
oppressed  by  melancholy,  often  retiring  into  the  con- 
vent of  the  Benedictines,  and  meditating,  to  all  ap- 
pearance, the  assumption  of  holy  orders.  Political 
disturbances,  however,  called  him  back  to  practical 
life,  and  as  this  was  a  time  when  it  was  necessary  for 
a  man  to  side  with  one  or  other  of  the  contending 
factions,  he  enrolled  himself  beneath  the  banner  of 
the  Guelphs,  and  in  1289  was  present  at  the  battle 
of  Campaldino  and  the  victory  of  Arezzo. 

Veri  de  Cerchi,  the  captain  of  the  Florentine  horse, 


144  FLORENCE. 

before  the  engagement  became  general,  decided  that 
twelve  picked  men  should  attack  the  enemy,  and  as 
those  who  took  part  in  this  attack  were  almost  cer- 
tain to  fall,  he  named  first  himself,  then  his  son,  and 
then  his  two  nephews,  calling  upon  "  those  who  love 
their  country  to  come  forward  and  prove  it  by  mak- 
ing up  the  required  number."  A  hundred  and  fifty 
men  volunteered,  and  among  these  was  Dante. 

Upon  the  9th  of  June,  1290,  Dante,  then  five-and- 
twenty,  received  the  tidings  of  the  death  of  Beatrice. 
The  thought  of  her  had  sustained  him  in  life ;  she  was 
his  pole-star  and  hope ;  but  though  the  blow  was  a 
terrible  one,  he  bore  it  in  silence,  only  giving  expres- 
sion to  it  six  months  afterwards  in  the  canzone, 
"  Anima  mia  che  non  ten'  vai  f  As  his  heart  did 
not,  much  to  his  surprise,  cease  to  beat,  he  devoted 
himself  to  the  study  of  philosophy  and  theology,  mak- 
ing himself  familiar  with  the  Greek  and  Latin  authors, 
and  for  the  next  two  years  we  know  that  he  was  en- 
grossed in  literary  labors  to  the  exclusion  of  poHtics. 
In  1292  he  married  Gemma  dei  Donati,  to  whom — 
though  strangely  enough  her  name  is  never  once 
mentioned  in  his  poems — ^he  became  very  much  at- 
tached. In  the  year  of  his  marriage  he  renewed  his 
connection  with  public  aflfairs,  was  elected  to  the  Gov- 
ernment Council  as  Prior  in  1300,  sent  in  the  follow- 
ing year  on  an  embassy  to  Boniface  VULl.,  and  be- 
coming involved  in  one  of  those  revolutions  which 
£avored  now  Guelph  and  now  Ghibelline,  incurred,  in 


ILLUSTEIOUS  FLORENTINES.  145 

the  year  1302,  the  penalty  of  exile.  Now  began  his 
nineteen  years  of  wandering  through  Italy,  staying 
first  with  Bartolommeo  deUa  Scala  at  Verona,  then  at 
Padua,  and  then  at  Castelnuovo,  where  he  acted  as 
mediator  between  Malespina  and  the  Bishop  of  Luni. 
It  was  then  that  he  tasted  the  bitter  bread  of  exile, 
as  he  says ;  but  he  did  not  suffer  in  silence,  and  it  was 
at  this  period  that  he  wrote  the  "  Convito  "  and  the 
discourses  known  as  the  "  Volgare  Eloquio."  Broken- 
hearted, and  yearning  with  love  for  Florence,  his  un- 
grateful country,  he  cannot  reconcile  himself  to  the 
thought  of  living  away  from  her,  and  with  a  ming- 
ling of  hope  and  despair  he  weeps  and  almost  im- 
plores that  he  may  be  allowed  to  return. 

It  seemed  at  one  time  as  if  his  prayer  would  be 
heard,  and  he  hoped  to  hasten  its  fulfilment  by  dedi- 
cating one  of  his  works  to  the  Emperor  Henry  VII. 

In  January,  1311,  Robert,  King  of  Naples,  was 
proclaimed  King  of  Italy,  but  the  Guelph  cities 
refused  to  recognize  him,  and  Tuscany  and  the 
Romagna  joined  in  a  league  against  him.  The  Floren- 
tines allied  themselves  with  Lodi,  Cremona,  Brescia, 
Milan,  Pavia,  and  Piacenza,  and  it  took  the  King  six 
months  to  establish  his  power.  He  captured  Piacenza, 
Cremona,  Brescia,  and  Pavia,  handing  them  over  to 
governors,  who  showed  them  no  mercy,  and  then 
proceeded  to  subjugate  Tuscany.  It  was  at  this 
critical  period  that  Florence  opened  her  gates  to 
most  of  the  exiles,  but  the  exclusion  of  the  leaders 

10 


146  FLORENCR 

dashed  all  Dante's  hopes  to  the  ground.  He  was 
then  at  the  Court  of  the  Polentas  at  Ravenna,  with 
Guido  Novello,  as  we  know  by  the  date  of  a  canzone 
on  the  death  of  the  Emperor  Henry  VH.,  dedicated 
to  Guido. 

In  1314  he  was  at  Lucca,  as  the  guest  of  Uguccione 
della  Faggiuola,  and  it  was  there  that  he  forgot  his 
ideal  passion  in  the  arms  of  a  lady  named  Gentucca. 

It  was  an  ancient  custom  that  on  the  festival  of  St. 
John  certain  criminals  should  receive  their  pardon, 
offering  themselves  to  the  saint,  candle  in  hand,  and 
paying  a  fine.  A  strenuous  attempt  was  made  to 
induce  Dante  to  end  his  exile  in  this  way,  but  to  the 
foolish  priest  who  conducted  the  negotiation  he  made 
the  indignant  reply  : 

"  Is  this  how  I  am  to  be  recalled  to  my  coimtry 
after  three  lustres  of  exile  ?  Is  this  to  be  the  recom- 
pense of  my  innocence  ?  Is  this  the  reward  of  my 
continued  labor  and  study  ?  Far  from  a  man  familiar 
with  philosophy  be  such  base  cowardice !  This  is  not 
how  an  exile  should  come  back.  Another  way  might 
surely  be  found  which  would  not  derogate  from  my 
fame.  But  if  by  this  way  only  can  I  enter  Plorence, 
never  again  shall  I  see  it.  And  what  then  ?  ShaU 
I  not  still  see  the  sun  and  the  stars,  and  ponder  the 
sweet  truth,  without  first  giving  myself  in  ignominy 
to  the  Florentine  people  ?  No ;  I  would  not  do  it  if 
I  were  starving." 

When  he  made  this  answer  he  was  at  the  Court  of 


ILLU8TBI0US  FLOEENTINES.  147 

Uguccione,  driven  from  which  he  found  an  asylum 
with  Can  Grande  della  Scala  at  Verona.     This  was 
the  most  celebrated  Court  in  all  Italy,  and  it  was  the 
refuge  of  artists  and  poets  from  all  parts,  for  whom 
Can  Grande  had  built  a  spacious  convent,  with  shady 
gardens  and  cool  cloisters.    Over  the  door  of  each  room 
Can  Grande  had  painted  some  symbol  characteristic 
of  the  inmate — military  trophies  for  the  condottieri 
and  captains ;    a  palm-branch,  symbolic  of  hope,  for 
the  exiles ;    an  olive-branch  for  the  monks  ;    and  a 
Mercury  and  Pallas  for  the  artists.     Dante  was  glad 
to  take  his  place  among  them,  and,  with  Gherardo  di 
Castello,  became  one  of  the  most  honored  guests  of 
Can  Grande,  but  the  latter's  unprincely  mode  of  jest- 
ing causing  an  estrangement,  the  poet  went  to  Ra- 
venna and  settled  at  the  Court  of  Guido  Novello, 
close  to  the  Franciscan  convent  now  called  Forte 
Braccio,  in  a  house  belonging   to  the   Signore   da 
Polenta.     He  had  with  him  his  sons  Giacomo  and 
Pietro,  and  his  daughter  Beatrice.     Guido  Novello 
was  a  friend  and  comforter  to  him  during  this  bitter 
period  of  exile,  when  he  knew  that  the  last  chance 
of  revisiting  his  country  had  gone.     Every  day  he 
repaired  to  the  convent  of  St.   Francis,   and  it  is 
almost  certain  that  towards  the  close  of  his  life  he 
enrolled  himself  among  the  brethren  of  that  order. 
In  1321  he  died,  full  of  honors,  at  Ravenna,  and  the 
lord  of  Polenta  pronounced  his  funeral  oration  and 
decked  his  tomb  with  a  wreath  of  laurel.     The  mon- 


148  FLORENCE. 

ument  at  Santa  Croce  is,  as  I  have  said,  merely 
ercted  to  his  memory,  his  bones  lying  at  Ravenna,  in 
a  tomb  which  was  built  in  1483,  by  order  of  Bembo, 
the  father  of  the  cardinal  of  that  name,  the  architect 
being  Pietro  Lombardi,  one  of  the  greatest  of  Vene- 
tian artists.  The  small  fa9ade  is  of  a  later  date, 
having  only  been  built  in  1780,  by  the  architect 
Morigia  of  Ravenna,  imder  the  direction  of  the 
Cardinal-Legate  Valenti  Gonzaga.  To  this  cursory 
biography  of  a  man  whose  genius  seems  almost 
superhuman,  and  whose  name  is  linked  with  that 
of  Homer  in  the  memory  of  man,  may  be  added 
a  few  lines  on  his  works.  I  am  fain  to  confess  that 
after  one-and-twenty  journeys  in  different  parts  of 
Italy  I  am  still  not  familiar  enough  with  the  language 
to  be  a  good  judge  of  the  sublime  expressions  and 
the  depths  of  beauty  which  characterize  the  "  Divina 
Commedia."  Yet  even  through  the  imperfect  inter- 
pretations of  the  best  translators  one  can  grasp  the 
lofty  conceptions  and  the  alternations  of  fierce  passion 
and  tenderness  which  run  through  its  stanzas. 

Dante  discloses  himself  to  us  in  three  different 
aspects.  At  first  he  sings  of  the  morning  of  life; 
and,  stricken  with  gentle  melancholy  at  the  sight  of 
Beatrice,  he  utters  his  amorous  lay  in  sonnets  and 
cantos.  At  her  death  his  spirit  soars  much  higher, 
and  then  it  was  that  he  wrote  his  great  book  entitled 
"Delia  Monarchia,"  a  learned  treatise  on  constitu- 
tions, in  which,  with  an  admixture  of  social  and  theo- 


ILLUSTRIOUS  FLORENTINES.  149 

logical  science,  he  discoursed  on  the  origin  of  power 
and  of  society.  The  poet  of  the  "  Rime  "  and  the 
"  Vita  Nuova,"  which  are  the  most  graceful,  youthful 
emanations  from  the  tenderest  soid  and  the  greatest 
genius  of  modem  times,  disappeared  in  the  austere 
thinker  trying  to  define  the  limit  between  the  power 
of  the  Emperor  and  that  of  the  Pope. 

Until  Dante's  time  the  Italian,  or  vulgar  tongue,  as 
it  was  called,  was  only  used  by  the  Tuscans  for  busi- 
ness communications,  and  by  common  people ;  but 
the  poet,  by  his  use  of  the  popular  idiom,  proved  that 
the  loftiest  ideas  and  the  noblest  thoughts  could  find 
expression  in  it  as  well  as  in  Latin.  This  was  the 
language  in  which  he  wrote  the  "Convito"  as  well 
as  the  "  Volgari  Eloquio."  Sent  as  ambassador  to 
Rome,  the  Papal  Court  left  an  indelible  impression 
upon  his  mind,  and  it  was  at  Rome  that  he  wrote  the 
first  stanzas  of  the  "  Divina  Commedia,"  the  recollec- 
tions of  his  early  youth  bringing  back  the  life-blood 
to  his  heart,  and  evoking  the  radiant  image  of  his 
Beatrice. 

While  not  attempting  to  bring  into  relief  the  infinite 
depth  and  tenderness  of  this  great  work,  I  would 
fain  point  out  the  methodical  manner  in  which  it  is 
written.  Thus,  all  the  characters  are  taken  from 
real  life,  though  Dante  intends  them  to  be  allegorical, 
and  the  events  in  which  they  take  part  express  the 
ideas  by  which  they  are  actuated.  The  work  is 
divided  into  three  parts — Hell,  Purgatory,  Paradise — 


160  FLORENCE. 

each  containing  a  mystical  teaching,  the  purport  of 
which  is  explained  by  the  poet  himself  in  the  letter 
which  he  wrote  to  Can  Grande  della  Scala,  dedicating 
the  work  to  him  out  of  gratitude  for  his  hospitality. 

Upwards  of  three  thousand  commentators,  begin- 
ning with  Boccaccio,  Jacopo  della  Lena,  and  Grande- 
nigo,  have  endeavored,  with  more  or  less  success,  to 
expound  the  meaning  of  the  poem ;  but  the  most 
trustworthy  exposition  is  that  of  his  son  Jacopo,  who 
may  be  supposed  to  have  known  more  about  his 
father's  views  than  any  one  else.  The  best  likeness 
of  him  whom  Guide  da  Polenta  styles  the  "  altissimo 
poeta "  is  probably  that  in  the  dim  frescoes  of  the 
Bargello. 

GIOVANNI  VILLANI. 
(1270-1348.) 

The  history  of  Florence  may  be  said  to  have  com- 
menced with  two  writers,  Dino  Compagni  and  Gio- 
vanni Villani,  both  bom  in  the  second  half  of  the 
thirteenth  century. 

Villani  was  a  merchant  by  profession,  and,  like 
Dante  and  so  many  others,  he  went  to  Rome  in  the 
year  1300,  at  the  time  of  the  indulgence  which  had 
been  decreed  by  Boniface  Vlll.  He  was  so  im- 
pressed by  what  he  saw  that  he  determined  to  write 
a  book  about  his  native  city,  and  in  the  preface  he 
says  that  "the  city  of  Florence,  the  daughter  and 
handmaid  of  Rome,  being  destined  for  great  fame,  it 
is  meet  to  set  forth  all  that  relates  to  her  origin,  and 


ILLUSTEIOUS  FLORENTINES.  151 

thus,  by  the  grace  of  Jesus  Christ,  in  this  year  1300, 
I,  safely  returned  from  Rome,  did  begin  to  compile 
this  book  in  the  fear  of  God,  and  of  the  blessed  John, 
my  patron  (saint)." 

Villani  was  the  director  of  the  mint  (La  Zecca)  at 
Florence,  and  he  had  three  times  been  a  member  of 
the  Signoria,  and  five  times  ambassador  to  difi*erent 
states.  He  had  occupied  all  kinds  of  posts,  having 
had  the  superintendence  of  the  erection  of  the  ram- 
parts of  Florence,  and  having  been  selected  to  nego- 
tiate peace  between  Florence  and  Pisa,  and  after- 
wards between  Lucca  and  his  native  city ;  while, 
when  fighting  against  the  famous  Castruccio,  he  was 
made  prisoner  and  detained  as  a  hostage  by  Martino 
della  Scala.  He  was  a  partisan  of  the  Guelphs  and 
a  devoted  son  of  the  Church,  though  at  the  same  time 
an  advocate  for  communal  rights ;  but  he  was  less  suc- 
cessfid  as  a  banker-merchant,  his  house,  like  those  of 
the  Acciaiuoli,  the  Bonaccorsi,  the  Cocchi,  and  the 
Corsini,  having  been  involved  in  the  disasters  caused 
by  the  failures  of  the  Peruzzi  and  the  Bardi.  He 
was  completely  ruined,  and,  in  accordance  with  the 
corporation  laws  then  in  force,  underwent  a  long  term 
of  imprisonment  at  Florence. 

His  chronicles  throw  no  little  Hght  upon  the  eco- 
nomic side  of  Florence  during  the  fourteenth  century, 
and  he  may  be  described  as  the  first  of  the  political 
economists,  one  passage  in  his  works  telling  us  of  his 
wish  "  to  let  posterity  have  some  conception  of  the 


152  FLORENCE. 

wealth  of  the  community,  and  of  the  causes  which 
led  up  to  it,  so  that  in  future  men  of  knowledge  may 
be  able  to  increase  the  prosperity  of  Florence."  He 
died  of  the  plague  in  1348,  and  his  brother  Matteo, 
an  economist  like  himself,  went  on  with  his  history.* 

PASSAVANTI. 

(1297-1357.) 

"  Specchio  della  Vera  Penitenza  "  ("  Mirror  of  the 
True  Penitence") — such  is  the  singular  title  of  Jacopo 
Passavanti's  work,  which  became,  from  a  philological 
point  of  view,  one  of  the  most  remarkable  exemplars 
of  the  Italian  language.  It  has  nothing  to  recom- 
mend it  in  the  way  of  imagination,  for  it  is  little  more 
than  a  compilation  from  the  Fathers  of  the  Church, 
but  it  was  no  small  achievement,  in  the  first  part  of 
the  fourteenth  century,  to  express  in  the  scarcely 
formed  vulgar  tongue  the  various  shades  of  thought 
in  a  style  at  once  pure,  elegant,  and  graceful.  These 
are  the  saving  qualities  of  Passavanti's  work. 

He  was  of  a  noble  Florentine  family,  and  at  the 
age  of  twenty  joined  the  Dominican  order  at  Santa 
Maria  Novella,  and  soon  gained  a  celebrity  for  learn- 
ing and  virtue.  So  high  were  the  hopes  entertained 
of  him  that  the  fathers  sent  him,  in  accordance  with 


*  Matt«o  also  died  of  the  plague  in  the  year  1363,  and  the  his- 
tory was  continued  by  his  son  Filippo,  the  precise  date  of  whose 
death  is  not  known. 


iT5^E 


W'AJsTL 


Tr 


»  phili 


he  Ohurcit 


tul.     Tbo*c 


order  at 
!l«,  and  ««1  a  celebrity  ft* 

The  Great  Cloister,  Church  of 
S*  Maria  Novella 

Fra  GioJ>anni  da  Carpi 


ILLUSTBIOUS  FLORENTINES.  153 

the  custom  of  the  day,  to  complete  his  studies  at  the 
University  of  Paris  ;  Dante,  Boccaccio,  and  Petrarch 
being  among  the  foreign  celebrities  who  sojourned 
there.  Passavanti,  on  his  return  from  Paris,  taught 
theology  at  Pisa,  Siena,  and  Rome,  and  after  attain- 
ing to  the  highest  dignities  in  his  order,  and  becom- 
ing in  succession  Vicar-General  of  Florence  and 
Bishop  of  Monte  Cassino,  he  died  on  the  15th  of 
June,  1357. 

He  was  best  known  to  the  Florentines  as  Prior  of 
Santa  Maria  Novella,  and  he  it  was  who  commissioned 
Memmi  and  Gaddi  to  paint  the  famous  frescoes  in  the 
church  of  that  monastery  where  his  bones  are  laid. 
An  interesting  quotation,  as  showing  the  place  which 
Passavanti's  "  Specchio  "  occupied  in  the  literary  his- 
tory of  the  sixteenth  century,  is  extracted  from  the 
writings  of  the  critics  who  were  called  in  1573  "the 
deputies  for  the  revision  of  Boccaccio's  'Decameron.'" 
These  remarks  are  as  follow :  "  There  was  a  certain 
Jacopo,  a  brother  of  Santa  Maria  Novella,  about  ten 
years  Boccaccio's  junior,  who,  in  1351,  that  is,  about 
the  same  time  as  the  '  Decameron,'  published  a  trea- 
tise on  'Penitence'  in  the  Latin  tongue,  which  treatise 
he  translated  himself,  and  partly  recomposed,  into  the 
vulgar  tongue.  His  manner  is  very  similar  to  that 
of  Boccaccio  ;  and  though  he  does  not  seem  to  make 
any  attempt  to  be  playful  or  amusing,  the  style  is  not 
devoid  of  deHcacy.  The  language,  too,  is,  for  the 
time,  pure,  appropriate,  sedate,  and  ornate,  without 


164  FLORENCK 

being  pretentious,  and  the  work  is  unquestionably 
calculated  to  charm  those  who  read  it." 

Passavanti,  like  so  many  other  authors,  is  no  longer 
read ;  but  it  is  astonishing  to  find  how  many  of  his 
ideas  have  been  appropriated  by  the  most  eminent 
writers,  and  his  "  Specchio  "  is  more  amusing,  in  the 
ordinary  sense  of  the  word,  than  the  title  would  lead 
one  to  infer.  Most  of  the  anecdotes  with  which  it 
abounds  refer  to  events  in  Paris,  and  there  is  much 
good-humor  about  the  worthy  monk,  who  urges  upon 
his  readers  an  introspective  examination  of  their  con- 
sciences. 

PETRARCH. 
(1304-1374.) 

Vaucluse,  to  use  Petrarch's  own  expression,  is  the 
^'  Transalpine  Parnassus  "  of  the  poet ;  and  the  recol- 
lection of  him  is  still  as  vivid  in  the  ancient  "county" 
of  Avignon  as  in  his  native  Tuscany.  He  was  bom 
at  Arezzo,  which,  small  as  it  is,  has  given  birth  to  so 
many  men  of  genius,  on  the  20th  of  July,  1304,  and 
he  came  into  the  world  at  a  time  when  his  country 
was  torn  by  faction,  and  when  several  of  her  most 
illustrious  children  were  in  exile.  His  father,  who 
held  the  appointment  of  Notary  in  the  Florentine 
Rolls  Court,  was  a  friend  of  Dante,  and,  proscribed 
like  the  latter,  took  refuge  at  Pisa,  where  he  sent  his 
son  to  study  at  the  University.  The  death  of  Henry 
VII.,  which  put  an  end  to  the  last  hopes  of  the  exiles 
and  inspired  Dante  with  so  splendid  a  canzone,  led  to 


ILLUSTRIOUS  FLORENTINES.  155 

the  final  exile  of  Petrarch's  father,  who  took  up  his 
residence  at  Avignon  with  the  Papal  Court  of  Clem- 
ent V. 

While  the  University  of  Montpellier  was  already 
celebrated,  the  south  could  boast  at  that  time  of  those 
Courts  of  Love  at  which  the  Provengal  poets  met  in 
friendly  rivalry.  Petrarch's  father  looked  upon  the 
study  of  law  as  the  surest  road  to  fortune  for  his  son, 
and  it  is  said  that  finding  him  on  one  occasion  ab- 
sorbed in  Cicero,  he  took  the  book  and  cast  it  into  the 
fire.  Those  who  are  predestined  to  be  famous  in  let- 
ters are  not,  however,  to  be  thus  deterred,  and  Pe- 
trarch drank  so  deeply  of  the  ancient  writers  that  in 
his  "  Triumph  of  Fame  "  he  calls  Virgil,  Cicero,  and 
Seneca  "  the  eyes  of  our  language  "  (questi  son  gli 
occhi  de  la  lingua  nostra). 

A  brief  sketch  of  his  life  will  not  come  amiss  be- 
fore explaining  by  what  strands  he  is  connected  with 
the  genius  of  Florence,  and  fixing  his  place  in  the 
history  of  her  literature :  below  Dante  and  above 
Boccaccio.  His  father,  adhering  to  his  resolve  to 
make  a  lawyer  of  him,  sent  him  from  Montpellier, 
where  he  had  spent  four  years,  to  the  University  of 
Bologna ;  here  he  studied  first  imder  Giacomo  Andrea, 
and  then  under  Cino  da  Pistoia.  He  was  left  an 
orphan  at  twenty,  and  his  fortune  having  been 
squandered  by  his  executors,  he  was  obliged  to  re- 
turn to  Avignon,  where  he  then  gave  himself  up  to 
his  favorite  studies. 


156  FLORENCE. 

He  was  twenty-three  when  he  made  the  acquaint- 
ance of  Colonna,  Bishop  of  Lombez,  whose  affection 
for  him  exercised  a  very  great  influence  upon  the 
whole  of  his  future  career ;  and  it  is  at  this  period, 
too,  that  began  to  dawn  the  passion  which  directed 
the  course  of  his  whole  life,  and  inspired  him  with 
the  sonnets  by  which  he  is  known  to  us.  Petrarch 
remains  for  posterity  "  the  lover  of  Laura, '^  and  the 
fountain  of  Vaucluse  has  become  the  shrine  of  this 
affection,  not  less  touching  and  ill-starred  than  that 
inspired  by  Beatrice,  but  more  real  and  more  vivid. 
It  was  under  the  influence  of  this  stormy  passion  that 
Petrarch  made  his  way  through  the  south  of  France  to 
Paris,  Flanders,  the  Netherlands,  and  Luxembourg, 
exhaling  in  all  directions  his  amorous  burden,  like  a 
bird  stricken  by  a  dart ;  and  scattering  his  verses  by 
the  wayside. 

Petrarch,  however,  was  a  citizen  of  the  world, 
and  he  was  of  too  practical  a  turn  of  mind  to  isolate 
himself  in  the  ethereal  Platonism  which  animates 
some  of  his  writings.  Pope  John  XXII.  was  intent 
upon  restoring  Rome  to  the  Holy  See,  and  Petrarch, 
inflamed  by  the  idea  of  a  fresh  crusade,  wrote  the 
ode  to  the  Bishop  of  Lombez  which  begins  with  the 
splendid  invocation,  "  O  aspettata  in  ciel,"  and  in 
1335  he  wrote  some  magnificent  Latin  verses  on  the 
same  subject  to  Pope  Benedict  XII. 

But  the  image  of  Laura  still  haunted  him,  and  he 
could  not  bring  himself  to  settle  anywhere.     Colonna, 


ILLUSTKIOUS  FLORENTINES.  157 

having  become  a  cardinal,  induced  him  to  come  to 
Rome,  but  he  soon  returned  to  Avignon,  and  went  to 
reside  in  solitude  at  Vaucluse,  leading  a  life  of  ascet- 
icism, and  devoting  himself  wholly  to  the  ideal  figure 
of  her  upon  whom  all  his  thoughts  were  fixed.  It 
was  there  that  he  wrote  those  sonnets  and  odes,  which 
soon  made  him  famous  throughout  Italy,  and  worthy 
to  be  compared  with  Dante  himself. 

In  1340  his  name  had  become  so  celebrated  that 
the  Roman  Senate  invited  him  to  return  to  that  city 
and  receive  the  honors  of  the  Capitol,  while  the 
Chancellor  of  the  University  of  Paris,  which  at  that 
time  enjoyed  a  world-wide  celebrity,  oflfered  him  sim- 
ilar honors  on  the  banks  of  the  Seine. 

Petrarch  repaired  to  Italy,  first  visiting  Naples, 
where  Robert  of  Anjou,  a  friend  of  literature,  was 
surrounded  by  a  Court  composed  of  poets  and  men 
of  learning.  It  was  at  Naples  that  he  became  inti- 
mate with  Boccaccio,  to  whom  he  addressed  such 
touching  letters  instinct  with  friendliness.  Upon  the 
8th  of  April,  1341,  he  went  up  to  the  Capitol,  twelve 
young  Roman  princes  preceding  him  and  reciting 
some  of  his  finest  compositions.  Having  reached  the 
altar,  he  received  the  laurel  wreath  and  the  garlands 
of  flowers  woven  by  patrician  hands.  When  he  had 
received  them,  he  laid  them  with  reverence  upon  the 
altar,  as  much  as  to  intimate  that  he  owed  his  success 
to  Divine  favor,  and  after  the  ceremony  was  over  he 
returned  to  Avignon,  without  casting  one  look  behind. 


168  FLORENCR 

The  year  following,  as  the  Romans  had  commis- 
sioned him  to  make  known  their  wishes  to  the  Holy 
Father,  Clement  VI.  appointed  him  Prior  of  Miglia- 
rino,  in  the  diocese  of  Pisa,  and  he  intrusted  him  with 
a  mission  at  once  confidential  and  perilous,  to  Naples, 
where  the  Holy  Father  claimed  the  regency.  But 
the  Princess  Joan,  a  granddaughter  of  King  Robert, 
who  has  left  behind  her  a  very  bad  reputation,  would 
not  listen  to  his  representations,  and  he  returned  to 
Avignon,  after  a  brief  stay  at  Parma.  He  was,  in 
his  retreat,  still  accessible  to  the  influence  of  generous 
ideas,  and  when  Rienzi  endeavored  to  restore  the  re- 
public at  Rome,  Petrarch  sent  him  his  congratula- 
tions, and  did  not  allow  even  the  assassination  of  Cardi- 
nal Colonna  to  estrange  him.  But  the  phantom  of  a 
restored  republic  faded  away  with  the  death  of  Ri- 
enzi I  and  it  was  just  about  the  same  time  that  Laura 
was  stricken  down  by  the  plague  of  1348,  which 
Boccaccio  has  depicted  in  such  sinister  colors. 

The  death  of  Laura,  which  inspired  his  most  ten- 
der sonnets  and  filled  him  with  such  lasting  sorrow, 
could  not  occupy  his  whole  heart,  and  his  duties  as  a 
man  and  a  citizen  were  not  forgotten.  After  a  short 
visit  to  Louis  Gonzaga  at  Mantua,  in  the  country  of 
his  beloved  Virgil,  he  wrote  a  letter  to  Charles  IV., 
entreating  him  to  restore  peace  to  Florence ;  and  in 
1350  he  was  enabled  to  return  there,  spending  some 
time  with  Boccaccio,  and  visiting  his  native  Arezzo, 
where  he  had  become  a  stranger.     The  plague  drove 


ILLUSTRIOUS  FLORENTINES.  159 

him  from  Florence,  and  in  company  with  Boccaccio 
he  visited  Venice.  As  one  by  one  his  friends  died 
and  left  him  more  solitary,  his  life  became  more 
austere  and  laborious.  At  Ferrara,  where  he  went 
to  see  the  Prince,  he  fell  ill,  and  on  getting  better  he 
took  up  his  residence  at  Milan,  where  he  passed  the 
next  nine  years  as  the  guest  of  the  Visconti.  In 
1362  he  settled  at  Padua,  and  in  1369  retired  to  the 
little  village  of  Arqua,  where  on  the  18th  of  July, 
1374,  he  was  found  seated  in  his  library  with  his 
forehead  resting  on  a  book.  Death  had  overtaken 
him  in  this  attitude  of  study  so  typical  of  his  whole 
life.  He  was  buried  with  great  pomp,  Francesco  de 
Carrara  acting  as  chief  mourner,  while  all  the  nobihty 
followed  his  coffin.  He  is  buried  in  front  of  the  door 
of  the  church  at  Arqua,  and  by  his  will  he  bequeathed 
all  his  valuable  MSS.  to  the  Republic  of  Venice,  and 
left  a  small  sum  to  his  friend  Boccaccio.  Petrarch 
derived  much  of  his  inspiration  from  Dante,  and  there 
is  a  very  great  resemblance  between  the  "  Rime  "  of 
the  former  and  the  miscellaneous  pieces  from  the  lat- 
ter's  "  Convito."  In  Petrarch's  case  his  finest  inspira- 
tions, those  which  go  straight  to  the  heart  and  keep 
the  writer's  name  alive  in  future  ages,  are  dictated  by 
his  passion  for  Laura,  and  he  derived  from  his  study 
of  the  ancient  authors  a  clearness  of  style  and  a 
hmpidity  of  thought  which  were  in  favorable  con- 
trast with  the  mysticism  and  obscure  allegories  of 
Dante.     He  assimilated  the  language,   and  was,  in 


160  FLORENCE. 

spite  of  a  few  solecisms,  a  faiiltless  Latin  writer,  hav- 
ing the  fluency  of  Cicero,  and  writing  prose  like  a 
poet — with  a  wealth,  that  is  to  say,  of  imagery.  He 
was  so  well  endowed,  too,  with  the  art  of  imitation 
that  his  writings  may  easily  be  mistaken  for  those  of 
the  poets  at  the  end  of  the  Empire,  and  in  some  in- 
stances he  goes  so  far  as  to  copy  the  very  ground- 
work and  method  of  certain  Roman  writers.  His 
"  Consolations  "  take  one  back  entirely  to  antiquity, 
and  in  bidding  a  friend  bear  up  under  adversity  he 
calls  to  his  aid  all  the  examples  famished  by  Roman 
history.  He  was  richly  endowed,  no  doubt,  in  imag- 
ination, but  having  been  intimately  mixed  up  in  the 
practical  affairs  of  his  day,  he  has  derived  all  his  illus- 
trations from  contemporary  life,  or  from  facts  testified 
to  in  the  works  of  ancient  authors. 

Petrarch,  in  his  wanderings,  saw  France  during 
the  fourteenth  century  in  the  hands  of  the  enemy. 
He  resided  at  Avignon,  Montpellier,  Bologna,  Paris, 
Cologne,  Naples,  Genoa,  Rome,  Parma,  Florence, 
Venice,  Padua,  Milan,  and  Prague.  He  was  the 
friend  of  kings,  the  guest  and  correspondent  of  popes, 
and  the  pensioner  of  great  nobles.  He  took  part  in 
various  political  combinations,  and  his  reveries  ex- 
tended over  many  fields.  He  was  more  a  man  of 
letters  than  a  devotee ;  and  though  a  canon,  a  bishop, 
and  a  prior,  he  held  such  broad  views  on  religion 
that  he  was  the  friend  of  Boccaccio,  whom  he  gently 
chided,  however,  for  the  tone  of  his  writings,  exhort- 


ILLUSTKIOUS  FLORENTINES.  161 

ing  him  to  be  more  guarded  in  his  expressions. 
When  he  wrote  on  religious  subjects  he,  Kke  Marcilio 
Ficino  at  a  later  date,  referred  for  his  facts  to  the 
philosophers  and  rhetoricians,  and  quoted  Cicero  and 
Seneca  in  preference  to  Holy  Writ.  He  was  impelled 
by  a  longing  for  solitude  to  reside  at  Vaucluse  and 
Arqua  j  but  withal  he  was  a  man,  and  was  moved  by 
human  ambition,  and  though  he  bore  his  triumphs 
with  modesty,  he  was  none  the  less  eager  in  his  pur- 
suit of  them.  He  was,  in  fact,  more  of  a  sage  than 
a  saint.  He  was  endowed  with  a  certain  breadth  of 
mind  which  prevented  him  from  being  held  in  bond- 
age by  the  dreamy  views  of  his  age,  and  which  kept 
him  free  from  the  errors  of  astrology  and  the  preju- 
dices of  the  time.  He  had  no  mission  as  a  political 
partisan  like  Dante,  having  broader  views  and  being 
less  of  a  sectarian  than  the  latter,  and  this  enabled 
him  to  look  down  upon  the  human  mSUe  from  the 
observatory  to  which  he  had  ascended,  and  to  watch 
the  varying  phases  of  the  combat  with  disinterested 
eyes.  At  what  he  deemed  the  appropriate  hour  he 
wrote  letters  in  behalf  of  justice  to  pontiffs  and  to 
emperors,  speaking  freely  and  impartially  to  the 
rulers,  spiritual  and  temporal. 

Eager  for  knowledge  and  study,  he  grieved  that 
he  could  not  read  Homer  in  the  Greek  text,  writing 
to  Sygeros,  "  Your  Homer  lies  dumb  by  my  side  ;  I 
am  deaf  to  his  voice,  but  still  the  sight  of  him  rejoices 
me,  and  I  often  embrace  him." 

11 


102  '  '  ■ '  I  'FJLOBENOE.  i r:i  ]  [Ji 

It  has  been  asked  whether  the  Laura  who  h6ld  sd 
large  d  place  in  the  life  of  the  poet  waa  a  fiction  or  a 
Kving  reality.  She  has  been  identified  by,  some  with 
Laura  de  Noves,  daughter  of.Audibert  de  Noyes,  land 
lihe  wjas  already  married  when  Petrarch  saw  her  for 
ihe  first  time  in  the  church  of  Sfc.  Claire  at  Ayignon. 
He  fell  in  love  with  her  at  first  eight;  and.for  twiqn*^ 
years  preserved  this  passion  in  his  heart  .^;  a  fruitful 
source  6f  inspiration.  He  loved  her  ia?  one  lov^efet  at 
twenty — ^with  enthusiasm,  candor,  ahd  chastity  i  'He 
was  three-and-twenty  the  day  he  first  mist  her^  and 
he  had  already  assumed  the  priestly  g^rb;  AstiiUe 
went  on  hia  passion  became  more  ardent,^  but  she 
g&ye  hhn.  no  encouragement,  and  after  an  absence 
be  retu;-ned  to  Avignon  only  tq  :expei?iencQ  the  aanib 
^sappointmenfc.  Xiaura:  died  of  the  plaguei  i«L  1348| 
tod  he  bewailed  her  I068  in  verse&  which  axe;.mx)rd 
profound,  passionate,  and  truly ,  beautiful. ,  than  ;tho80 
in -which  he  ^xt6ls  "  her  serene  eyes,  her  beautiful 
togelio  mouth,,  fidl  of  pearls,  roses,  and  gentle  words-f! 
Some  of  the  early,"  Rime  "  are  rather  minting,  but 
there  is  this  accent  of  f  deep  sorrow  in  the  ";Sctnnet8/^ 
notably  in; the  splendid  liaas:,  I i    i-itUiViij.;   ,>ii  v:>»,j,ii . 

*•  Morta  colei  che  mi  facea  parlare  .     '     '    ^ 

-•(Jt   hn  'iEclieiiBtjiva'ae"p*n8ifef'triie"iilt[mU^>'  '''M'l^I 

^ifUh/f  .1      '!    .1'.    :!)       .'t   ,  ■    .     .;    1  i     ;•)    M    ;  -i;  !>l;i'.»  '<i{ 

I  In' his  despair  he  determined  to  abaildoxi  the  warld, 
and  he  wrote  upOn  the  fly-leaf  of  his  VirgH  the  oath 
to  fly  from  Babylon  arid  tO  out  1  himself,  adrift:,  from 


ILLUSTEIOUS  FJbOEENTINES.  1©3 

all  worldly  ties.  But,  as  M.;  Ghebart  remarks  in  his 
'i'  Origines  de  la  Renaissance,"  "gifted,  writeirs  like 
Petrarch  do  well  not  to  deprive  the  world  of  their 
eloquenc^y  their  irony,  their  sagacity,  and  the  rciso- 
nant  echo  of  their  genius.??;  '^miii  m;  iHU-uo  od  ,  (^  i  'J 

.,  5  '     ACCIAITQOLI  (NICCOLO).  i.  a  ,  .  w,  .  .u..^ 
',.  (1310-1365.)         .  .  ,       f         .    , 

-.  The  name  ictf  thjs;  family >  though  lit  ,-\yas  not  in- 
digenens.  tQ  Tijscaiiy,  is , a, very  coDptnioni  one lat  Flor" 
ence.  One  branch  of  it  settled  in  that  city  during 
the  fourteenth  century,  and  on  the  12th  of  September, 
1310,  Niccolo,  who  was  destined  to  be  the  glory  of 
Lis  house,  was  bom  there*  •        ;>  .••■>•  ;:v,nn 

•«iHis  principal  field  of  action,  was  Naples,  whith^ 
be"  hdd  gone  as  tutor  to  the  young  Prince  Louis  of 
Tarentum,  son  of  Catherine  of  Valois,  ihe  widow  oft 
Philip,  Prinde  of  Tareutum.  .p  >  .i>J  ?- -r  ..[)  I 
hil'aithful  to  his  .  employ erSj  he  shared  the  vicissi- 
tudes of  the  Court  of  Naples  during  the  time  of  Queen 
Joan  I.,  whom  he  accompanied  to  Avignon,  and  when 
Louis  of  Tarentimi  espoused  her,  Acciaiuoli  had  theni 
crowned  at  Naples,  and  was  appointed  by  the  Queen 
Great  Seneschal  of  the  kingdom,  this  being  the  high' 
est  dignity  to  which  he  could  aspire.  •  :'• , 

.'•iQriven  from  her  Court  by  the  King  of  Hungary, 
wandering  from  place  to  place,  and  ever  in  danger 
of  some  fresh  disaster,  the  Queen  was  saved  by 
Niccolo,  who^  .pres^jpted  himself .  to .  tfee ,  jflprentiftes, 


164  FLORENCR 

and  implored  their  help  for  the  granddaughter  of 
King  Robert  of  Naples,  who  had  been  their  faithful 
aUy. 

Endowed  with  great  energy  and  matchless  dex- 
terity, he  raised  an  army  and  coped  with  the  condot- 
tieri,  who  thought  they  had  an  easy  prey.  But  the 
resources  of  the  Court  were  exhausted,  and  the  army, 
being  kept  waiting  for  its  pay,  went  over  to  the 
enemy.  Acciaiuoli  died  in  1365,  and  his  biography 
was  written  by  Matteo  Palmieri,  the  Apostolic  Secre- 
tary. 

BOCCACCIO. 
(1313-1375.) 

Boccaccio  may  be  regarded  as  the  first  classical 
prose  writer  of  Italy,  and  to  him  belongs  also  the  dis- 
tinction of  fully  revealing  to  the  Tuscan  people  by 
his  commentaries  the  genius  of  Dante. 

I  do  not  know  upon  what  ground  Dandolo,  the 
author  of  the  "  Esthetic  Guide  to  Florence,"  makes 
his  statement  as  to  Paris  having  been  the  birthplace 
of  Boccaccio,  for  the  generally  accepted  belief  is  that 
he  was  bom,  as  asserted  in  the  Osservatore  FiorentinOj 
at  Certaldo  in  1313.*  His  father  was  a  merchant, 
and  it  was  against  his  wishes  that  his  son  embarked 
upon  a  literary  career.  Very  well  read  in  the  ancient 
authors,  he  gave  his  preference  to  the  vulgar  tongue, 
and  the  first  Italian  author  whom  he  read,  and  whose 

*  In  "II  Filocopo,"  Boccaccio  writing  of  himself  in  the  char- 
acter of  Caleone,  mentions  Paris  as  his  birthplace. 


ILLUSTKIOUS  FLOBENTINES.  165 

works  he  soon  got  to  know  by  heart,  was  Dante. 
From  him  he  derived  his  highest  and  best  inspira- 
tions, including  the  substance  of  the  eloquent  speech 
which  he  delivered  under  the  Duomo  on  the  day  that 
he  vented  his  malediction  on  Florence  for  having 
closed  her  gates  upon  the  most  illustrious  of  her  sons. 
The  speech  is  stiU  extant,  and  well  deserves  the 
reputation  which  it  gained  at  the  time. 

He  happened  to  be  at  Naples  at  the  time  when 
Eling  Robert  was  receiving  Petrarch  with  so  much 
pomp.  He  made  the  poet's  acquaintance,  and  learnt 
to  admire  and  respect  him,  retaining  until  the  day 
of  his  death  a  filial  regard  for  him.  Boccaccio,  in 
his  early  days,  was  a  thorough  gallant,  and  having 
fallen  in  love  with  the  daughter  of  the  King  of  Naples, 
he  gave  utterance  to  his  passion  in  one  of  his  great- 
est works,  "La  Fiammetta,"  on  the  title-page  of 
which  he  inscribed  her  name.  He  made  but  a  brief 
stay  at  Florence,  whither  he  was  summoned  by  his 
father  during  the  reign  of  the  mad  Duke  of  Athens, 
returning  at  once  to  Naples,  where  he  enjoyed  the 
favor  of  two  queens,  or  of  two  daughters  of  queens, 
whose  literary  tastes  were  very  highly  developed. 
The  death  of  his  father  brought  him  back  to  Tuscany, 
and  he  made  Florence  his  permanent  residence.  It 
was  there  that  he  received  Petrarch  on  his  way  to 
the  jubilee  at  Rome  after  a  separation  of  twenty 
years,  and  he  set  himself  to  recover  for  the  exiled 
poet  his  rights  of  citizenship  and  his  paternal  inherit- 


im  >;••  ' :  ;  FLOBENCE.    ;  r  • :  :,^. : 

ance>  wWch  had  been  confiscated  when  his  father, 
like  Dante,  was  driven  into  exile.  Boccaccio  suc- 
ceeded in  obtaining  from  the  Siguoria  a  decree  restor- 
ing this  property  to  Peitrarch.  i  - .  :"".'   .il  b  .->,'  r-  ;  ; 

There  are  two  distinct  individualities  in  Boccaccio, 
and  yet  Frenchmen  and  many  other  foreigners  per- 
sist in  estimating  his  character  by  the  first  part  of 
his  Hfe  only,  associating  his  name  with  all  that  is 
sensuous  and  light.  This  may  hold  true  of  Iiim  W;hile 
he  was  at  the  Court  of  Naples,  and  while  he  was  com- 
posing amorous  poetry  in  honor  of  his  royal  patroness; 
but  after  the  year  1360  he  devoted  himself  to  more 
serious  study,  and  followed  in  the  wake  of  Accursi, 
the  great  jurisconsult,  seeking  the  companionship  of 
the  learned  Greek  philosophers  from  Byzantium  who 
flocked  to  Florence,  and  even  assuming  the  priestly 
garb.  This  conversion  was  mainly  the  work  of  Pe- 
trarch and  of  a  Carthusian  monk,  and  he  might  pos- 
sibly have  renounced  writing  altogether  if  it  had  not 
been  for  a  remarkable  letter  in  which  Petrarch  dis- 
suaded him  from  giving  up  the  composition  of  poetry, 
and  urged  him  to  use  his  pen  to  instil  admiration  for 
the  beautiful,  useful,  and  good.      *>£<    v,;-:  v,    '\a-, -,. 

It  is  certain,  at  all  events,  that  he  led  a  contem- 
plative life  during  the  last  few  years  of  his  existence, 
devoting  his  whole  thoughts  to  God,  to  the  salvation 
of  his  own  soul,  and  to  his  books.  The  death  of 
Petrarch  in  1374  affected  him  so  deeply  that  he  de- 
clared that  he  should  not  long  survive  him  ;  and,  as 


ILLUSTEiaUB  FLOEENTINES.  1^. 

a  matter  of  fact,  he  died  the  following  year.  The 
will  of  this  once  brilliant  courtier  was  a  model  of, 
humbleness.  He  bequeathed  to  Bruna,  the  daughter 
of  his  friend  Ciango  de  Montemagno,-  "  a  wooden 
bedstead,  a  feather-bed,  a  pair  of  good  sheets,  a.  small 
table  upon  which  he  was  wont  to  take  his  meals,  two 
table-cloths,  two  towels,  and  his  monk's  robe  lined 
with  purple."  He  bequeathed  two  holy  images  to 
the  church  of  San  Giacomo  at  Certaldo,  where  he 
died,  and  all  his  manuscripts  to  Martino  da  Signa,  on 
condition  that  he  allowed  any  one  to  take  a  copy  of, 
them.  This  comprised  the  whole  fortune  /.of  the 
whilom  favorite  of  the  Court  of  Naples.  '■. 

His  tomb  is  not  at  Santa  Croce,  where  one  would 
expect  to  find  it,  between  those  of  Dante  and  Machia- 
velli,  but  at  Certaldo,  where  he  had  spent  the  last 
t'Wo  years  of  his  life.  It  has  sufi'ered  many  vicissi- 
tudes, too,  having  first  been  moved  to  make  room  for 
the  organ,  while  in  1783,  owing  to  a  mistaken  inter- 
pretation of  the  Grand  Duke  Leopold's  decree  as  to 
burials  inside  of  churches,  the  bones  of  the  illuBtrious 
Writer  were  removed  from  the  coffin  and  deposited 
elsewhere.  Filippo  Villani  has  left  a  description  of 
him  which  tallies  very  closely  with  the  bust  at  Cer- 
taldo, and  which,  as  we  have  every  reason  to  belie v6, 
i^  correct.  According  to  this  description,  the  lips 
Were  half-parted  with  a  smile  5  he  was  stout,  and  had 
a  fresh  complexion.  The  nose  was  rather  flat,  and 
though  he  had  na  pretensions  to  manly  beauty,  there 


168  FLORENCK 

was  an  air  of  good-humor  upon  his  pleasant  face.  It 
is  the  likeness,  in  short,  of  the  poet  of  the  "  De- 
cameron" rather  than  of  the  philosopher  of  later 
years  which  the  artist  has  left  to  us. 

'But  a  better  insight  into  the  character  of  a  man  is 
to  be  gained  from  the  private  correspondence  in  which 
he  gives  free  expression  to  his  thoughts  ;  and  when 
Francis,  the  son-in-law  of  Petrarch,  annoimced  to 
Boccaccio  the  tatter's  death,  he  wrote  him  a  letter  in 
Latin  which  shows  how  accessible  his  heart  was  to 
pity  and  veneration,  and  how  deeply  he  was  affected 
by  his  friend's  death. 

"  My  first  impulse,"  he  says,  "  was  to  come  and 
weep  with  you  over  our  mutual  loss,  and  say  a  last 
farewell  to  our  mutual  father,  but  for  the  ten  years 
that  I  have  been  lecturing  in  public  upon  Dante's 
'  Commedia '  I  have  been  afflicted  with  an  infirmity 
which,  though  not  dangerous,  to  a  great  extent  par- 
alyzes my  movements.  When  I  received  your  letter 
I  wept  all  the  night  long,  not  out  of  sorrow  for  this 
worthy  man  (for  the  virtues  with  which  he  was  en- 
dowed are  a  sure  guarantee  that  he  has  entered  into 
eternal  happiness  with  his  God),  but  because  his 
death  leaves  me  like  a  ship  at  sea  without  a  pilot. 
Amid  the  agitation  of  my  soul  I  thought  of  your 
anguish  and  of  that  of  the  worthy  Tullia,  your  wife 
and  my  sister.  As  a  Florentine  I  envy  Arqua,  which, 
hitherto  obscure,  will  now  become  famous  in  the  world's 
history.     The  traveller,  as  he  sails  along  the  Adriatic 


ILLUSTRIOUS  FLOEENTINES.  169 

on  his  way  from  the  distant  East,  will  look  towards 
the  Euganean  hills,  and  will  say  to  his  companions, 
'  It  is  at  the  foot  of  those  hills  that  rests  Petrarch  !' 
Oh,  unhappy  coimtry,  which  will  not  hold  the  ashes 
of  so  illustrious  a  son !  Thou  hast  not  deserved 
this  good  fortune,  for  during  his  lifetime  thou  didst 
nothing  to  attach  him  to  thee.  Perhaps  thou  wouldst 
have  done  so  had  he  been  a  worker  of  treason,  and 
sullied  with  crime,  or  devoured  by  ambition  and 
envy."  A  constant  study  of  these  favored  epochs 
of  literature  may  possibly  make  one  feel  all  the  more 
distaste  for  the  foolish  politics  of  the  hour,  and  cause 
one  to  undervalue  one's  own  epoch ;  but  certain  it  is 
that  the  mind  dwells  fondly  upon  the  names  of  such 
men  as  Dante,  Boccaccio,  Michael  Angelo,  and  Dona- 
tello,  who  were  as  lofty  in  character  as  in  genius,  and 
the  nobility  of  whose  disposition  pulsates  through 
their  writings. 

Boccaccio  was  the  first  writer  of  romance,  prop- 
erly so  called ;  the  "  story  "  and  the  poem  in  octavo 
in  the  vulgar  tongue  being  his  creation.  To  him  we 
owe  "Ameto,"  "II  FUostrato,"  "L'Amorosa  vizione," 
and  "  B  Ninfale  fiesolano,"  poetic  compositions  of  his 
youth,  which  have  often  been  copied  since,  and  which 
have  served  as  types  of  a  school.  Of  these  the 
"  Fiammetta,"  written  in  1344,  is  regarded  as  his 
greatest  work,  while  his  "  Life  of  Dante  "  was  the 
first  biography  of  the  poet  of  the  "  Divina  Comme- 
dia."     He  also  wrote  "  The  Genealogy  of  the  Gods," 


170  FLORENCK 

"Illustrious  Women/'  and  " Illustrious  Unfortunates," 
as  well  as  a  treatise  upon  mountains,  forests,  and 
rivers.  If  we  consider  the  period  at  which  this  was 
written,  we  see  how  much  he  was  ahead  of  his  age  as 
regards  mythology,  geography,  literature,  and  phi- 
lology. He  was  far  advanced  in  years  and  near  his 
end  when  he  began  the  commentaries  on  Dante  and 
the  "  Divina  Commedia,"  and  was  accorded  the  priv- 
ilege of  occupying  the  pulpit  of  Santa  Maria  del 
Fiore,  the  people  of  Florence  flocking  to  the  church 
in  crowds  to  hear  the  eloquent  revelation  of  the 
beauties  of  a  work  which,  notwithstanding  the  com- 
mentaries of  Dante's  own  son,  still  remained  obscure 
for  the  multitude. 

It  was  upon  one  of  these  memorable  occasions  that 
he  so  fiercely  stigmatized  the  crimes  of  the  preceding 
generations  of  Florentines,  making  the  vaulted  roof 
of  the  Duomo  ring  with  his  indignant  tirade  :  "  Oh, 
Florence !  what  madness  impelled  you  to  drive  out 
the  most  glorious  of  your  children,  one  the  like  of 
whom  no  other  city  could  ever  hope  to  possess. 
What  greater  victories,  and  triumphs,  and  supremacy 
can  you  boast  of?  Your  riches  are  uncertain,  your 
beauty  fragile  and  fleeting,  your  elegancies  idle  and 
frivolous  ;  it  is  only  those  people,  who  judge  more  of 
appearance  than  reality,  who  can  regard  them  as  be- 
ing glorious.  Do  you  set  great  store  by  your  mer- 
chants and  your  goldsmiths,  by  the  ancient  lineage 
and  the  celebrity  of  your  great  families  1     Unnatural 


ILLUSTKIOUS  FLORENTINES.  171 

mother  that  you  are,  open  your  eyes  and  behold  your 
misdeeds,  and  may  remorse  and  repentance  lay  hold 
on  you !  Your  Dante,  your  son,  died  in  exile,  and  it 
was  you  who  sent  him  into  banishment.  His  remains 
rest  in  foreign  ground,  and  you  will  never  see  him 
before  the  last  day.  He  treated  you  with  filial  re- 
spect, for  he  might  have  deprived  you  of  his  works, 
as  you  did  not  treat  him  with  due  honor.  Yet,  in 
return  for  his  inspired  writings,  you  deprived  him  of 
his  right  of  citizenship.  He  was  banished  forever, 
and  yet  he  remained  a  Florentine,  preferring  his  na- 
tive place  to  all  the  cities  of  Italy.  Ask  that  his 
bones  may  be  surrendered  to  you ;  pay  this  last  mark 
of  respect  to  his  mighty  shade,  and  even  if  you  do 
not  feel  any  remorse,  take  this  step  in  order  that  the , 
burden  of  reproach  may  be  less  heavy  upon  you. 
Ask  that  his  ashes  may  be  restored  to  you;  and 
though  I  am  certain  that  you  will  be  refused,  you 
will  at  least  have  shown  that  you  are  not  altogether  a 
stranger  to  feelings  of  pity.  But  it  is  perhaps  a  vain 
hope  which  I  hold  out  to  you,  for  the  dead  can  neither 
feel  nor  understand.  Dante  will  not  emerge  from  his 
last  resting-place  at  Ravenna,  from  that  necropoUs  in 
which  so  many  illustrious  dead  are  buried ;  and  Ra- 
venna, which  knows  the  value  set  on  her  hospitality, 
knows,  also,  the  value  of  the  treasure  which  she  pos- 
sesses. The  whole  universe  keeps  watch  over  the 
remains  of  the  greatest  and  most  perfect  genius  ever 
bom,  and  you,  Florence,  are  left  face  to  face  with 


172  FLORENCE. 

your  ingratitude,  while  it  is  this  foreign  city  which  in 
future  ages  will  reap  the  glory  which  ought  to  have 
been  yours." 

The  most  popular  of  Boccaccio's  works,  the  mas- 
terpiece which  is  the  heritage  of  every  great  writer, 
and  which  becomes,  so  to  speak,  the  peg  to  which  his 
celebrity  is  affixed,  is  the  "  Decameron."  As  regards 
imagination  and  style,  it  stands  alone.  It  gives  a 
complete  and  lifelike  picture  of  manners  and  customs 
at  Florence  in  the  fourteenth  century.  It  is  an  epit- 
ome of  Florentine  habits,  each  class  of  society  being 
depicted  with  a  master  hand  in  its  pursuits,  its  pas- 
sions, its  good  qualities,  its  defects.  It  is  a  mirror  in 
which  each  class  finds  its  own  image  reflected,  and 
though  the  work  is  of  a  licentious  tendency,  which 
makes  it  unsuitable  for  the  young,  this  is  only  an  ac- 
cessory feature.  The  "  Decameron  "  is  a  frame  for 
the  display  of  contemporary  pictures,  and  one  of  the 
tales  from  it,  the  episode  of  Griselda,  was  selected  by 
Petrarch  to  translate  into  Latin. 

COLUCCIO  SALUTATI. 

(1330-1406.) 

The  h  )nor  of  taking  rank  immediately  after  Dante, 
Petrarch,  and  Boccaccio  devolved  upon  Salutati^ 
whose  mission  it  was  to  correct  the  texts  of  the 
Greek  and  Latin  authors,  to  form  libraries  and  acad- 
emies, and  to  see  that  the  manuscripts  tallied  exactly 
with  the  originals.     He  had  the  reputation  of  being 


ILLUSTRIOUS  FLOEENTINES.  173 

the  most  elegant  Latin  scholar  of  his  day,  and  as 
Pope  Urban  V.  was  anxious  to  have  him  as  Apostolic 
Secretary,  he  was  compelled  to  take  holy  orders. 
Being  a  widower  at  the  time,  he  seemed  likely  to  rise 
to  the  highest  dignities  in  the  Church,  but  the  Pope 
having  removed  the  Holy  See  to  Avignon,  Coluccio, 
not  feeling  any  decided  vocation  for  a  religious  life, 
threw  off  his  priestly  robes  and  remained  in  Italy, 
where  he  soon  contracted  a  second  marriage. 

As  soon  as  it  was  known  that  he  was  free,  several 
sovereigns  and  princes  invited  him  to  come  and  re- 
side at  their  Court,  but  though  he  had  acted  as  Chan- 
cellor of  Perugia,  and  had  gone  thence  to  the  Court 
of  Rome,  he  was  unwilling  to  leave  Florence,  where 
he  had  accepted,  in  1375,  the  post  of  Chancellor, 
with  the  arduous  task  of  conciliating  the  interests 
and  appeasing  the  cravings  of  Guelphs  and  Ghibel- 
lines,  and  of  the  many  Florentine  families  which 
were  at  daggers  drawn  with  each  other. 

For  thirty  years  Salutati  discharged  these  duties 
with  unquestioned  authority,  and  he  became  the 
model  secretary  of  the  Republic,  after  whom  Gian- 
ozzo  Manetti,  Leonardo  Bruni,  and  Carlo  Marsuppini 
shaped  their  conduct.  The  duty  of  corresponding 
with  crowned  heads  devolved  upon  him,  and  he  was 
equal  to  the  task  of  upholding  the  interests  of  the 
country,  of  forming  alliances  in  the  hour  of  danger, 
and  of  averting  perils  of  various  kinds. 

He  occupied  a  very  prominent  place  in  Florentine 


174  FLORENCE. 

politics  during  the  fourteenth  century,  and  he  pos- 
sessed sufficient  influence  to  take  the  lead  in  very  im- 
portant negotiations,  as  when  at  the  time  of  the  great 
Papal  schism  he  wrote  to  Innocent  VII.  urging  him  to 
put  an  end  to  a  scandal  which  threatened  to  be  the  ruin 
of  the  Church.  The  celebrated  John  Galeas  Vis- 
conti,  when  ready  to  make  war  with  Florence,  de- 
clared that  he  dreaded  the  arguments  of  Salutati 
more  than  a  great  army.  His  manifestoes  are  abid- 
ing proofs  of  his  political  genius,  just  as  they  are 
masterpieces  of  literature  and  eloquence. 

Politics,  however,  did  not  make  him  forget  his 
fondness  for  literature,  as  was  shown  when  Giuliano 
Sanseverino  in  the  University  of  Bologna,  and  John 
de  San  Miniato,  a  monk  of  the  Camaldoli  order,  at 
Florence,  forbade  their  hearers  to  read  the  ancient 
poets  and  the  profane  writers  of  antiquity.  It  was 
in  answer  to  them  that  he  composed  some  Latin  verses 
which  were  so  much  admired  that  he  received,  as 
Petrarch  had  done,  the  honors  of  a  pubUc  demonstra- 
tion. But  before  the  laurel  wreath  could  be  placed 
upon  his  brows  he  had  passed  away,  in  the  seventy- 
sixth  year  of  his  age,  and  from  the  account  of  his 
funeral  at  Santa  Maria  Novella  which  has  been  handed 
down  to  us,  we  learn  that  the  ceremonial  was  the  same 
as  that  afterwards  observed  at  the  obsequies  of  Leon- 
ardo Bruni  and  ]\Iarsuppini,  the  Gonfaloniere  in  office 
mounting  the  platform  upon  which  the  coffin  rested, 
and  placing  upon  the  forehead  of  the  defunct  the 


ILLUSTRIOUS  FLORENTINES.  175 

laurel  crown.  His  "  Political  Letters  "  are  regarded 
as  his  greatest  work,  but  little  of  what  he  wrote  has 
been  published.  The  Latin  poems  which  appear  in 
the  third  volume  of  the  "  Illustrious  Italian  Poets " 
are  well  known,  and  his  "  Political  Letters "  have 
been  edited  in  turn  by  Abbe  Mehus  and  Lami,  but 
they  are  far  from  being  complete. 

There  is  to  be  seen  in  the  church  of  Fiesole  the 
tomb  of  a  bishop  named  Salutati,  who  died  in  1466, 
and  who  very  possibly  may  have  belonged  to  the 
same  family.  This  prelate,  whose  tomb  is  one  of  the 
finest  creations  of  Mino  da  Fiesole,  was  famous  as  a 
jurisconsult,  and  he  wrote  several  works  on  civil  and 
canon  law.  A  great  favorite  of  Pope  Eugenius  IV., 
Nicholas  V.  continued  to  treat  him  with  affection,  and 
made  him  Bishop  of  Fiesole  in  1450. 

Some  writers  have  attributed  this  handsome  mon- 
ument, which  is  such  a  credit  to  the  church  within 
which  it  is  erected,  to  the  first  of  the  Salutati,  but 
works  of  art  possess  the  double  merit  of  being  beau- 
tiful in  themselves  and  of  becoming,  in  course  of  time, 
historical  documents.  The  monument  in  question  ia 
signed  and  dated,  so  that  there  can  be  no  question  as 
to  its  having  been  carved  by  Mino. 

FRANCO  SACCHETTL 
(1335-1410.) 

Racy,  and  at  times  rather  loose  in  his  stories, 
Sacchetti  is  not  gifted  with  the  same  inventive  powers 


176  FLORENCE. 

as  Boccaccio,  and  he  is  more  the  reflex  of  others  than 
a  type  by  himself.  But  he  has  plenty  of  spirit,  and 
it  is  evident  that  he  shares  with  his  readers  the 
amusement  which  he  is  trying  to  make  them  feel. 
His  "  Tales  "  possess  a  considerable  amount  of  interest 
from  the  fact  that  Sacchetti,  who  was  much  mixed 
up  in  the  course  of  contemporary  events,  introduced 
into  his  stories  characters  taken  from  real  Hfe,  gather- 
ing up  anecdotes  still  fresh  about  Dante,  Giotto,  and 
other  men  of  note.  He  brings  them  vividly  before 
our  eyes,  and  writers  such  as  Vasari,  Scipione  Am- 
mirato,  and  others  still  more  celebrated,  have  been 
glad  to  make  use  of  information  derived  from  his 
writings. 

He  came  of  a  very  good  family,  having  been  a  son 
of  Franco  di  Benci  d'Uguccione.  He  was  connected 
with  the  Dante  family,  and  was  sumamed  the  Good 
{U  Siwno).  His  first  literary  efforts  were  in  the 
poetical  line,  and  he  was  classed  among  the  imitators 
of  Petrarch.  He  held  public  office  at  Faenza  and 
San  Miniato,  was  Captain  of  the  Florentine  province 
in  the  Romagna,  Ambassador  to  Genoa,  and  Podest^ 
at  Bibbiena.  It  is  believed  that  he  wrote  his  "Tales" 
at  Casentino.  The  copy  which  I  have  examined 
contains  about  258,  and  he  is  not  particular  in  the 
choice  of  a  subject,  so  long  as  it  is  an  amusing  one, 
being  racy  to  the  verge  of  licentiousness.  Some 
fifteen  of  them,  however,  are  of  a  different  character, 
the  heroes  being  such  men  as  Dante  and  Giotto,  and 


ILLUSTEIOUS  FLORENTINES.  177 

it  is  worthy  of  note  that  while  several  austere  writers 
are  immoral  in  their  lives,  he,  with  all  his  light  and 
fanciful  stories,  is  at  bottom  full  of  honesty  and  up- 
rightness. 

Sacchetti  had  three  wives,  all  of  illustrious  descent  j 
the  first  being  a  Strozzi,  the  second  a  Gherardini, 
and  the  third  the  daughter  of  Francesco  di  ser  Santi 
Bruni,  and  for  six-and-twenty  years  there  was  a 
fourth  lady  who  inspired  his  poems,  and  to  whom  he 
dedicated  his  compositions.  He  had  two  sons ;  one, 
Philip,  being  a  poet,  while  the  other,  Nicholas,  was 
Gonfaloniere  of  Justice  in  1419. 

There  is  much  to  admire  about  him,  for  he  was  at 
once  a  patriot  and  a  gentleman.  His  genial  humor, 
as  well  as  the  incidents  he  related  concerning  the 
most  noted  men  of  his  time,  have  kept  his  name 
alive.  His  public  career  was  a  successful  one,  and 
his  writings  are  instinct  with  force  and  good-humor. 
He  died  at  the  age  of  seventy-five,  beloved  by  his 
contemporaries,  and  his  writings,  extending  from 
grave  to  gay,  comprise  Sermons,  Letters,  and  a  bur- 
lesque poem  (of  which  a  new  edition  was  published 
as  recently  as  1819)  called  "  La  Battaglia  delle  Vec- 
chie  con  le  Giovane,"  the  very  title  of  which  shows 
how  amusing  it  must  have  been  in  the  hands  of  a 
writer  so  gifted  with  himior.  He  was,  little  as  he 
may  have  imagined  such  to  be  the  case,  both  an  artist 
and  an  historian. 


12 


178  FLORENCE. 

BONACCOKSO  PITTL 

(1336-1425.) 

Pitti  is  an  ancestor  of  the  great  Pitti  of  the  fifteenth 
century,  after  whom  the  royal  palace  at  Florence  is 
still  named,  and  his  reputation  as  a  chronicler  is  well 
deserved.  He  may,  indeed,  be  described  as  one  of 
the  originators  in  Italy  of  that  form  of  literature, 
which,  under  the  name  of  "  Memoirs,"  is  so  much  ap- 
preciated at  the  present  time. 

He  belonged  to  the  Neri  and  to  the  Pitti ;  that  is 
to  say,  to  a  family  which  had  always  occupied  a  high 
position  in  the  State,  and  which,  by  means  of  the 
wealth  subsequently  acquired  in  trade,  became  the 
equal  of  princes  and  a  rival  of  the  Medici. 

His  life  was  one  long  romance,  and  his  adventures 
are  comparable  with  those  of  Benvenuto  Cellini,  Casa- 
nova, and  the  Chevalier  Eon.  He  became  a  type  for 
the  anecdotic  history  of  the  Florentines,  and  the  real 
value  of  the  memoirs  which  he  has  left  is  that  they 
give  us  a  realistic  picture — making  due  allowance  for 
exaggeration — ot  the  life  of  a  great  number  of  Floren- 
tines at  the  beginning  of  the  fifteenth  century. 

Fond  of  gaming  and  duelling,  a  libertine,  adven- 
turous, very  well  read,  crafty,  skilful  in  trade,  quite 
capable  of  a  serious  demeanor  when  he  pleased,  full  of 
ambition,  activity,  and  courage,  and  with  an  aptitude 
for  rising  with  the  tide  without  allowing  it  to  carry  him 
off  his  feet,  he  played  the  most  opposite  parts,  and 


ILLUSTEIOUS  FLORENTINES.  179 

engaged  in  all  kinds  of  business,  while  there  was  not 
a  country  in  Europe  which  he  did  not  visit  at  one 
time  or  another. 

He  was  one  of  those  many  Lombards  who  during 
the  fourteenth  century  went  in  quest  of  fortune  all 
over  the  world.  They  combined  trade  and  gambling, 
speculation  and  poUtics,  ever  ready  to  induce  the 
public  to  make  hazardous  investments  or  to  lend 
them  money  at  a  high  rate  of  interst.  Rolling  in 
wealth  one  day,  they  lived  like  princes,  while  the 
next  they  could  not  muster  the  money  to  pay  their 
hotel  bill.  Every  now  and  then  they  returned  to 
their  country  and  took  part  in  the  struggle  of  parties, 
with  the  result  that  they  often  rose  to  power  if  they 
did  not  lose  their  lives  in  the  fray.  Bonaccorso  went 
through  all  these  adventures,  and  was  famous  for  his 
gallantries  in  Bavaria.  He  gained  the  friendship  of 
the  Dukes  of  Orleans  and  Berri  in  Paris,  when,  in 
company  with  Bernardo  da  Cino,  another  financial 
adventurer  of  the  same  kidney,  he  went  thither 
from  Avignon,  where  they  had  been  endeavoring  to 
eflfect  a  reconciliation  between  the  Anti-pope  Bene- 
dict Xni.  and  Boniface  IX.  This  forms  a  singularly 
interesting  episode  in  his  life,  as  he  went  through  all 
sorts  of  vicissitudes  at  play,  and  fought  a  duel  with 
Montluc.  Nevertheless  he  succeeded  in  being  looked 
upon  as  a  man  of  genuine  importance  by  the  Floren- 
tines, who  sent  him  to  seek  the  alliance  of  the  French 
King  against  the  Duke  of  Milan ;    and  in  1418  his 


180  FLORENCR 

son  Luca  was  in  a  position  to  be  a  freeholder,  and  to 
purchase  the  house  and  land  of  the  defunct  Roberto 
de  Rossi  for  four  hundred  and  fifty  gold  florins. 
This  is  the  site  of  the  great  Pitti  Palace. 

Towards  the  close  of  his  life,  tired,  in  all  proba- 
bility, of  scouring  the  world,  Bonaccorso  settled  down 
at  Pescia,  which  is  the  last  place  referred  to  in  his 
memoirs,  and  it  was  there  that  he  wrote  the  story  of  his 
life  from  day  to  day,  his  dashing  style  reminding  one, 
as  I  have  said,  of  Cellini  and  Casanova.  He  noted 
down  every  detail,  and  mixed  with  the  happiest  effect 
the  anecdotes  of  his  private  life  with  the  more  im- 
portant events  of  history.  When  the  assassination 
of  the  Duke  of  Orleans,  which  was  destined  to  exer- 
cise so  much  influence  upon  the  course  of  French 
history,  occurred  (November  23,  1407),  his  diary 
contains  the  note  :  "  I  made  a  hundred  gold  florins 
to-day  by  a  bargain  in  wool."  He  was  at  that  time 
master  of  the  horse  to  the  Duke  of  Orleans. 

In  1423  he  was  still  captain  at  Castellaro  in  the 
Romagna,  and  by  his  orders  seven  inhabitants  at 
Forli,  who  had  schemed  to  open  the  gates  of  the  city 
to  the  Duke  of  Milan,  were  beheaded. 

His  memoirs  were  not  published  until  1720,  three 
centuries  after  he  wrote  them,  the  title  being,  "  Cro- 
nica  de  Buonaccorso  Pitti,  con  Annotazioni.  Flor- 
ence, 1720,  in  quarto." 


ILLUSTRIOUS  FLORENTINES.  181 

AGNOLO  PANDOLFINL 

(1360-1446.) 

Gifted  with  profound  wisdom,  Pandolfini  is  the 
type  of  the  upright  citizen  who,  so  far  from  seeking 
honors,  has  them  forced  upon  him.  He  was  a  genial 
writer  and  moralist,  too,  and  his  book,  entitled  "II 
Govemo  della  Famiglia,"  is  one  of  the  standard  works 
in  Italy.  Tiraboschi  and  Quinqueni,  who  are  nearly 
always  trustworthy,  do  not  speak  of  Pandolfini,  doubt- 
less because  he  was  not  a  brilliant  writer.  But  if  he 
did  not  distinguish  himself  by  any  great  action,  his 
career  was  a  useful  and  benevolent  one.  Bom  at 
Florence  in  1360,  and  the  son  of  a  merchant  who  had 
made  his  fortune  at  Naples,  he  was,  from  an  early 
age,  independent,  and  being  a  man  of  considerable 
erudition  and  full  of  wisdom,  he  was  twice  elected  to 
the  Signoria,  in  1397  and  1408 ;  and  was  three  times 
Gonfaloniere  of  Justice. 

The  Republic  sent  him  on  missions  to  Martin  V., 
the  Emperor  Sigismund,  and  King  Ladislaus,  from 
the  latter  of  whom  he  obtained  the  cession  of  the  ter- 
ritory of  Cortona,  as  an  indemnity  for  the  losses  sus- 
tained during  the  Naples  campaign.  In  1414,  1420, 
and  1431  he  occupied  the  post  of  Gonfaloniere,  and 
he  was  iQvariably  called  upon  to  arbitrate  between 
his  fellow-citizens  in  their  ever-recurring  intestine 
quarrels.  With  the  sagacity  for  which,  as  I  have 
said,  he  was  famous,  he  had  foreseen  the  disasters  of 


182  FLOKENCE. 

Lucca,  and  had  done  all  in  his  power  to  dissuade  the 
Balia  from  entering  upon  that  war.  He  was  the 
friend  of  Cosimo  the  Elder,  whose  influence  he  con- 
stantly seconded,  and  when  the  latter  was  exiled,  his 
protests  brought  about  his  recall.  He  was  less  suc- 
cessful in  regard  to  Palla  Strozzi,  who  was  a  relative 
of  his  wife's,  and  took  his  exile  so  much  to  heart  that 
he  withdrew  from  public  Ufe.  He  led  a  very  peace- 
ful existence  at  his  villa  of  Ponte  a  signa  (or  Ganga- 
landi),  universally  respected,  ever  ready  to  show 
hospitality  to  great  and  small,  receiving  the  visits  of 
sovereigns  and  pontiffs,  and  anticipating  with  a  serene 
conscience  the  approach  of  death.  It  was  here  that 
he  wrote  his  "  D  Govemo  della  FamigHa,"  in  lan- 
guage as  elevated  as  the  ideas  expressed  in  it.  A 
very  lucid  summary  of  this  book,  though  only  extend- 
ing over  fifteen  pages,  is  due  to  the  pen  of  Dandolo. 

LEONAKDO  BRUNI  ARETINO. 
(1369-1443.) 

Leonardo  Bnmi,  who  is  buried  at  Santa  Croce,  in 
the  splendid  tomb  erected  at  the  cost  of  the  Floren- 
tine Republic  by  Bernardo  Rossellino,  was  one  of  the 
revivers  of  Greek  and  Latin  literature  in  the  fifteenth 
century,  and  the  sphere  of  his  action  was  altogether 
pacific.  His  only  connection  with  politics  was  when 
he  was  employed  upon  some  conciliatory  mission,  or 
in  rendering  homage  to  some  foreign  sovereign  or  the 
chief  of  some  neighboring  state.     He  was  famous  for 


ILLUSTRIOUS  FLORENTINES.  183 

his  learning  and  eloquence,  and  his  character  seems 
to  have  stood  as  high  as  his  learning. 

Leonardo,  bom  at  Arezzo,  was  educated  at  Flor- 
ence, just  when  the  study  of  Greek  was  being  brought 
into  vogue  by  the  influence  of  the  savants  who  had 
come  from  Constantinople.  He  studied  under  Manuel 
Chrysoloras,  and  through  the  influence  of  Poggio  he 
was  appointed  Apostolic  Secretary  to  Pope  Innocent 
VII.,  who  was  inchned  to  think  him  too  young  when 
he  first  saw  him,  though,  on  coming  to  cross-question 
him,  he  recognized  the  young  man's  great  abilities. 
The  successors  of  that  pontiff  retained  him  in  their 
service,  and  he  held  the  same  post  under  Gregory 
Xn.,  Alexander  V.,  and  John  XXHI. 

The  Republic  of  Florence,  anxious  to  secure  a  cit- 
izen of  such  merit,  appointed  him  Chancellor,  a  post 
which  he  retained  until  the  time  of  his  death. 

When  the  Council  of  Constance  deposed  John 
XXni.,  Leonardo,  looked  upon  as  a  rebel,  fled  with 
him  on  foot,  mcurring,  during  three  days,  dangers  of 
every  kind  and  great  privations. 

Like  this  pontiff,  who  died  there  and  was  interred 
in  the  baptistery  of  San  Giovanni,  in  a  superb  tomb 
carved  by  DonateUo,  he  found  refuge  at  Florence, 
and  in  1415,  while  in  peaceful  retirement  at  Arezzo, 
wrote  the  "  History  of  Florence,"  a  manuscript  copy 
of  which  is  to  be  found  in  every  Italian  library. 
This  work  produced  a  great  sensation,  and  the  Flor- 
entine Government  sent  him  the  freedom  of  the  city 


184  FLORENCR 

and  settled  upon  him  a  pension,  the  reversion  of  which 
was  to  go  to  his  children.  It  was  then  that  he  was 
induced  to  accept  the  post  of  Chancellor,  and  he  died 
while  in  office,  his  conduct  shedding  an  additional 
lustre  upon  this  dignified  post. 

He  was  a  man  of  noble  demeanor  and  tried  probity, 
his  high  character  manifesting  itself  in  every  act  of 
his  life.  All  the  foreigners  who  passed  through  Flor- 
ence were  anxious  to  make  his  acquaintance  and  pay 
him  their  respects,  while  upon  one  occasion  a  learned 
Spaniard,  who  had  been  presented  to  him,  insisted 
upon  remaining  on  his  knees  all  the  time  that  the 
audience  lasted.  He  died  suddenly  in  1443,  to  the 
deep  regret,  not  of  Florence  alone,  but  of  all  Italy. 

The  Republic  intrusted  the  celebrated  Gianozzo 
Manetti  with  the  preparation  of  the  funeral  oration. 
The  coffin  was  placed  upon  a  platform  on  the  piazza 
of  Santa  Croce,  and  Manetti  laid  a  wreath  upon  the 
brow  of  the  dead  man,  upon  whose  breast  had  been 
deposited  a  copy  of  his  "History  of  Florence." 
Bernardo  Rossellino,  who  had  been  instructed  to  erect 
the  mausoleum,  took  this  ceremony  for  his  subject, 
and  left  behind  him  a  work  which  is  justly  regarded 
as  one  of  the  most  perfect  ever  shaped  by  human 
hands. 

His  native  Arezzo,  jealous  of  Florence,  was  anxious 
to  rival  her  by  rendering  the  last  homage  to  his  re- 
mains, but  Florence  would  not  part  with  them. 

His  works  are  very  nimierous,  consisting  for  the 


ILLUSTRIOUS  FLORENTINES.  185 

most  part  of  translations  from  Latin  and  Greek  manu- 
scripts and  historical  works,  though  he  also  wrote 
several  biographies,  including  those  of  Dante  and 
Petrarch.  The  best  account  of  this  learned  man,  who 
interests  us  all  the  more  because  his  image  is  brought 
so  vividly  before  us  by  the  chisel  of  Rossellini  while 
so  many  other  men  of  the  fifteenth  century  are  mere 
abstractions,  is  to  be  gained  from  the  work  of  Abb6 
Mehus. 

POGGIO  BRACCIOLINL 

(1380-1459.) 

Poggio,  bom  at  Terranuova  in  the  territory  of 
Florence  in  1380,  sometimes  called  Poggio  Fioren- 
tino,  from  having  been  a  Chancellor  of  the  Republic. 

His  early  studies  were  made  at  Florence,  from 
which  city  he  proceeded  to  Rome,  where  he  was  em- 
ployed in  the  Papal  Secretary's  department.  He  re- 
mained there  for  half  a  century,  continuously  engaged 
in  profound  study  and  in  the  drawing  up  of  Bulls  and 
Briefs.  He  was  deep  in  the  confidence  of  successive 
popes,  and  employed  upon  missions  of  the  most  del- 
icate nature.  He  was  present  at  the  Council  of  Con- 
stance, and  whenever  Martin  V.  and  Eugenius  IV. 
made  a  journey  on  Church  afiairs  he  formed  one  of 
their  suite.  Poggio,  in  one  of  his  letters,  says  that 
he  cannot  remember  having,  during  his  fifty  years' 
service  at  the  same  Court,  remained  a  year  in  the 
same  town. 


186  FLORENCE. 

His  specialty  as  a  savant  was  Latin,  Greek,  and 
Hebrew,  and  he  took  advantage  of  his  continued 
travels  to  unearth  forgotten  manuscripts,  thereby 
rendering  great  service  to  literature.  He  travelled 
through  the  whole  of  Germany  and  Switzerland,  visit- 
ing all  the  depositories  of  manuscripts,  and  often  mak- 
ing valuable  discoveries.  He  was  seventy-two  years 
of  age  when  the  Holy  Father  allowed  him  to  go  and 
reside  at  Florence,  the  Republic  having  induced  him 
to  accept  the  post  of  Chancellor.  But  he  soon  found 
that  the  duties  which  it  involved  were  beyond  his 
strength,  and  he  retired  from  public  life,  writing  at 
his  retreat  in  the  suburbs  his  "  History  of  Florence," 
which  embraces  the  events  that  occurred  from  1350 
to  1453.  This  work  was  in  Latin,  and  it  was  his 
son  Giacomo  Bracciolini  who  translated  it  into  the 
vulgar  tongue. 

The  other  literary  achievements  of  Bracciolini  are 
his  translation  into  Latin  of  Xenophon's  "Cyropsedia" 
and  of  the  first  five  books  of  Diodorus  of  Sicily.  In 
the  philosophical  line  he  has  left  a  work  entitled 
"  Historia  ConviviaHs,"  and  several  moral  treatises, 
including  "  Avarice,  Nobility,  the  Wretchedness  of 
Human  Afiairs,"  and  "  The  Misfortunes  of  Princes 
and  Vicissitudes  of  Fortune."  Many  of  his  Epistles 
and  Orations  have  also  been  preserved,  and  they  are 
all  remarkable  for  the  perfect  Latin  in  which  they  are 
couched. 

Poggio  was  very  severe  upon  the  savants  of  his 


ILLUSTRIOUS  FLORENTINES.  187 

age,  and  being  jealous,  irascible,  and  always  inclined 
to  carp  at  others,  he  was  constantly  engaged  in  con- 
troversies, which  were  carried  on  in  a  spirit  of  vio- 
lence of  which  we  can  scarcely  form  an  adequate 
idea  at  the  present  time.  It  has  been  thought  that 
he  was  animated  by  some  special  dislike  for  Fran- 
cesco Filelfo,  about  whom  he  wrote  four  pamphlets, 
in  which  he  accused  him  of  all  the  evil  deeds  which 
a  human  being  could  well  commit,  but  these  are  not 
so  strong  as  the  five  pamphlets  directed  against 
Lorenzo  Valla,  the  Hellenist  and  Secretary  of  the 
King  of  Naples,  who  translated  the  Hiad,  and  Herod- 
otus and  ^sop.  Guarino  of  Verona  was  not  spared, 
nor  were  the  Bishop  of  Feltro,  Jacopo  Zeno,  and  the 
Duke  of  Savoy.  So  bitter  was  he  that  he  vented 
his  wrath  upon  communities,  involving  them  all  in 
one  common  condemnation.  He  was  very  learned, 
and  had  a  European  reputation,  but  for  all  that,  hatred 
is  the  distinguishing  characteristic  by  which  he  is 
known. 

CARLO  MARSUPPmi. 

(1399-1453.) 

Carlo  Marsuppini  and  Leonardo  Bruni  cannot  well 
be  spoken  of  apart.  They  were  contemporaries,  both 
had  the  same  career  and  much  the  same  intellectual 
tendencies,  and  both  had  the  good  fortune  to  be 
handed  down  to  posterity  in  the  work  of  men  of  genius. 

While  Rossellino  has  enshrined  to  us  the  features 


188  FLOEENCR 

of  Leonardo  Brimi,  Desiderio  da  Settignano  has  im- 
mortalized the  name  of  Carlo  Marsuppini  by  the 
monmnent  in  Santa  Croce,  which  is  opposite  that 
erected  to  the  former. 

Gregory,  the  father  of  Carlo,  was  Governor  of 
Genoa  under  Charles  VI.  From  Genoa  he  came  to 
Florence,  where  he  acquired,  in  1431,  the  rights  of 
citizenship.  Carlo  was  intrusted  to  the  care  of  John 
of  Ravenna,  who  encouraged  him  to  study  ancient 
literature.  He  chose  the  scholastic  career,  and  was 
a  candidate  for  the  professorship  of  literature  at  the 
University  of  Florence.  This  post  having  been  given 
to  Filelfo,  Carlo  became  his  bitter  enemy,  and  when 
the  former  was  banished  from  Florence  in  1434,  he 
succeeded  to  the  vacant  post. 

•As  his  pupils  comprised  two  nephews  of  Pope 
Eugenius  IV.,  the  latter,  in  return,  appointed  him 
Apostolic  Secretary,  and  in  1444  he  took  the  place 
of  Chancellor  of  the  Florentine  Republic  left  vacant 
by  the  death  of  his  compatriot,  Leonardo  Bruni.  It 
was  in  this  quality  that  he  presented  an  address  to 
the  Emperor  Frederick  m.,  when  the  latter  passed 
through  Florence  in  1452 ;  the  reply  was  made  by 
■^neas  Sylvius,  destined  to  become  one  of  the  most 
famous  of  the  popes,  under  the  title  of  Pius  II.,  and 
who  was  at  that  time  secretary  to  the  Emperor, 
-^neas  Sylvius  made  an  impromptu  reply,  and  Mar- 
suppini, who  was  expected  to  make  a  second  speech 
in  answer  to  this,  was  at  a  loss  what  to  say.     This 


ILLUSTEIOUS  FLORENTINES.  189 

incident  caused  great  excitement  at  the  time,  for 
Marsuppini  was  obliged  to  turn  round  to  his  neigh- 
bor Manetti,  and  ask  his  assistance.  His  real  abil- 
ities do  not  appear,  however,  to  have  been  called  into 
question,  for  the  famous  Matteo  Palmieri  was  in- 
structed to  prepare  a  funeral  oration,  and  to  place  a 
wreath  upon  him  after  death,  as  had  been  done  in  the 
case  of  his  predecessor. 

We  have  no  direct  proof  of  his  ability,  for  he  left 
very  few  works  behind  him  ;  but  Poggio,  whose  ex- 
cellent judgment  is  beyond  all  doubt,  introduces  Mar- 
suppini as  one  of  the  characters  in  his  dialogue  ^'De 
Infelicitate,"  and  both  Flavio  Biondo  and  Platina  have 
spoken  in  very  eulogistic  terms  of  him. 

His  best-known  work  was  a  translation  in  hexam- 
eters of  the  singular  poem  attributed  to  Homer, 
"The  Batrachomyomachie,"  the  first  edition  of  which 
was  published  in  Parma  in  1492.  His  letters,  like 
those  of  Leonardo  Brimi,  are  highly  interesting,  for 
he  was  in  more  or  less  frequent  intercourse  with  the 
most  celebrated  men  of  the  day.  Many  personal 
details  concerning  him  are  to  be  found  in  the  "  Vos- 
sian  Letters"  of  Apostolo  Zeno  and  in  Vespasiano 
Fiorentino. 

Those  two  tombs  of  Leonardo  Bruni  and  of  Mar- 
suppini do  honor  to  human  genius,  for  Greek  art 
itself  has  produced  nothing  more  perfect,  and  if  the 
names  of  the  two  men  who  are  buried  in  them  had 
not  been  kept  alive  by  the  merit  of  their  own  works 


190  FLORENCK 

the  sculptors  who  have  carved  their  likenesses  in 
marble  would  have  immortalized  them.  Carlo  Mar- 
suppini  died  at  the  age  of  fifty-four,  and  the  funeral 
oration  pronoimced  by  Palmieri  is  still  extant. 

His  name,  together  with  that  of  Gianozzo  Manetti 
and  Leonardo  Bruni,  constantly  recurs  in  the  history 
of  the  little  courts  of  the  Romagna  and  the  Marches, 
for  he  was  continually  being  employed  as  an  inter- 
mediary between  the  Vatican  and  the  princes  who 
were  attached  to  the  Holy  See  as  Vicars  of  the 
Church,  such  as  the  Estes,  the  Montefeltros,  the 
Malatestas,  and  even  the  Sforzas. 

BRUNELLESCHI. 
(1377-1446.) 

As  an  architect  Filippo  di  ser  Bnmelleschi  deserves 
a  place  apart  among  the  artists  of  his  day,  for  he  im- 
questionably  comes  first  of  the  reformers  who,  in  the 
beginning  of  the  fifteenth  century,  substituted  in 
place  of  Gothic  architecture  the  ancient  forms  adapted 
to  modem  requirements.  But  it  need  hardly  be  said 
that  so  important  a  movement,  destined  to  efi'ect  a 
complete  revolution  in  its  way,  could  not  be  the  work 
of  one  man.  A  whole  generation  of  thinkers  and 
artists  concurred  to  carry  it  through  when  once  the 
idea  was  "  in  the  air,"  to  use  a  modem  phrase,  and 
when  everything  was  tending  towards  its  develop- 
ment. Dante  himself  was  one  of  the  pioneers,  and 
Giotto,  Orcagna,  Amolfo  di  Lapo,  and  John  of  Pisa 


ILLUSTRIOUS  FLORENTINES.  191 

were,  almost  unknown  to  themselves,  travelling  in  the 
same  direction.  Their  style  was  more  chaste  than 
that  of  their  predecessors ;  they  had  a  clearer  percep- 
tion of  their  purpose  and  ideas,  and  having  the  cour- 
age to  be  simple  in  their  designs  at  a  time  when 
the  grotesque  was  still  in  fashion,  they  extricated,  in 
their  architectural  conceptions,  the  shape  and  the  line 
from  among  the  mass  of  parasitical  decoration  which 
concealed  the  trunk  and  the  branches  of  the  majestic 
tree. 

Bnmelleschi  still  further  accentuated  the  transition, 
while  Ghiberti,  Masaccio,  Donatello,  Mino  da  Fiesole, 
and  Alberti,  following  in  the  same  track,  completed 
the  transformation.  The  human  countenance,  still 
enveloped  in  the  conventional  primness,  which  was 
not  without  a  grace  of  its  own,  gradually  became 
more  animated,  the  figure  lost  its  stifiness,  the  body 
ceased  to  be  motionless,  and  the  eyes,  hitherto  closed 
to  the  light,  flashed  with  all  the  warmth  of  passion 
and  of  life.  The  victory  over  marble  was,  in  other 
words,  won.  These  innovators  in  architecture,  after 
having  endeavored  to  adopt  a  middle  course  between 
their  aspirations  and  the  respect  which  they  felt  for 
their  predecessors,  eventually  put  their  veto  upon  the 
original  style,  and  instead  of  allowing  the  cathedrals 
to  be  enveloped  in  gloom,  as  they  were  in  the  Middle 
Ages,  when  sinister  symbols  and  mysterious  devices 
were  all  the  fashion,  they  let  in  floods  of  light 
through  their  spacious  porticos.     The  new  style  of 


192  FLORENCE. 

architecture  expressed  at  once  strength,  nobility,  and 
simplicity,  a  new  system  being  created  out  of  the  ele- 
ments of  the  old. 

Simple,  logical,  and  grand  without  effort,  based 
solely  upon  the  law  of  propositions  and  the  mutual 
relation  of  different  parts  with  each  other,  the  new 
architecture,  though  evidently  inspired  by  antiquity, 
had  its  individual  grace  and  elegance,  while  its  origi- 
nality consisted  in  its  being  appropriated  to  the  re- 
quirements of  the  country  without  any  concession 
which  was  not  compatible  with  the  climate,  the  nature 
of  the  materials,  and  the  customs  of  the  time.  Orna- 
mentation occupied  merely  a  secondary,  almost  an 
accessory  position,  being  only  employed  in  the  new 
system  to  indicate  the  various  members  and  the  main 
divisions.  At  no  time,  it  may  safely  be  asserted, 
were  the  waters  which  issued  from  this  source,  and 
which  gradually  formed  a  torrent  of  genius  spreading 
throughout  Italy,  more  pure  and  wholesome  than  at 
the  foimtain-head.  Lombardi,  Leopardi,  Bramante, 
and  Fra  Giocondo  showed  themselves  to  be  gifted 
with  elegance  in  detail,  as  they  were  fuU  of  force  and 
grace  in  their  conception.  But  they  never  recovered 
that  chaste  grandeur,  characteristic  of  the  beginning 
of  the  fifteenth  century,  which  so  commands  our  ad- 
miration as  to  prevent  our  doing  full  justice  to  the  six- 
teenth century,  rich  as  that  also  was  in  every  branch 
of  intellectual  industry. 

It  is  interesting  to  trace  the  process  which  led 


ILLUSTKIOUS  FLORENTINES.  193 

Bnmelleschi,  the  successor  of  Giotto,  Amolfo  di  Lapo, 
and  Taddeo  Gaddi,  all  devoted  to  Gothic  art,  to  break 
openly  with  these  tendencies  and  to  strike  out  in  a 
new  direction,  and  this  can  best  be  done  by  describ- 
ing briefly  the  circumstances  of  his  life.  He  was 
bom  at  Florence  in  1377,  and  the  date  is  an  import- 
ant one  to  remember,  for  it  marked  the  passing  away 
of  the  Middle  Ages  and  the  germ  of  the  Renaissance. 
He  arrived  at  manhood  as  the  fifteenth  century,  of 
which  he  was  destined  to  become  one  of  the  bright 
lights,  was  just  dawning. 

When  one-and-twenty  years  of  age  Brunelleschi, 
who  had  objected  to  following  the  profession  of  notary, 
had  already  given  striking  proof  of  his  capacity  in 
mechanical  constructions  of  every  kind,  and  all  fur- 
ther attempt  to  make  him  adopt  any  other  career  was 
abandoned.  He  entered  the  Goldsmiths'  CoUege,  and 
was,  like  most  great  artists,  enrolled  among  the  adepts 
of  this  profession.  The  goldsmith's  art  was  a  very 
good  school  of  training,  requiring  as  it  did  inventive 
powers,  elegance,  a  great  dexterity  of  touch,  and  some 
knowledge  of  aU  kinds  of  drawing ;  while  the  quali- 
ties of  the  designer  are  called  forth  in  the  general 
composition,  those  of  the  sculptor  in  the  execution  of 
the  figures,  and  those  of  the  painter  in  the  harmoni- 
zation of  all  the  colored  parts. 

His  earliest  and  most  intimate  friend  was  Donatello, 
in  whose  society  he  passed  all  his  youth,  afterwards 
making  a  long  stay  with  him  at  Rome,  and  travelling 

13 


194  FLORENCK 

with  him  both  at  home  and  abroad.  After  having 
executed  several  works  of  sculpture  he  made  his 
debut  as  an  architect,  and  became  engaged  in  various 
undertakings  in  and  around  Florence.  It  was  during 
this  first  part  of  his  life  that  he  devoted  his  attention 
to  the  science  of  perspective  with  sufficient  detail  to 
be  able  to  draw  up  all  the  rules,  and  make  of  them  a 
guide  for  the  instruction  of  his  pupils  and  friends.  It 
is  even  said  that  Masaccio  derived  his  knowledge  of 
this  art  from  Brunelleschi.  He  did  not,  however, 
give  up  sculpture,  and  between  the  years  1398  and 
1404  he  carved  that  figure  of  Christ  in  Santa  Maria 
Novella,  which  has  become  famous  as  having  given 
rise  to  the  misunderstanding  between  him  and  Dona- 
tello,  whom  he  reproached  with  having  given  too  ma- 
terial an  expression  to  the  Divine  countenance. 

In  the  beginning  of  the  century  the  celebrated 
competition  for  the  execution  of  the  Baptistery  gates 
was  opened,  the  competitors  being  Lorenzo  Ghiberti, 
Jacopo  della  Querela,  Simone  da  Colle,  Francesco  di 
Valdambrina,  and  Niccolo  d'Arezzo. 

There  is  a  story  told  by  Vasari,  and  it  has  never 
been  controverted,  that  Ghiberti  and  Bnmelleschi 
having  been  called  upon  to  treat  the  same  subject 
(the  Sacrifice  of  Abraham),  the  latter  spontaneously 
adjudged  the  prize  to  the  former,  a  mark  of  generosity 
very  characteristic  of  him.  It  is  quite  certain  that, 
whether  the  story  is  true  or  not,  Ghiberti  was  awarded 
the  prize,  and  that  he  carved  the  gates,  but  it  is  in- 


ILLUSTEIOUS  FLORENTINES.  195 

teresting  to  compare  the  two  designs  in  bronze,  which 
may  be  seen  in  the  Bargello. 

It  was  after  this  competition  that  Brunelleschi  went 
to  Rome  with  Donatello.  On  arriving  there  he  with- 
drew from  all  external  affairs,  and  with  the  proceeds 
of  the  sale  of  a  small  property  at  Settignano  devoted 
himself  to  the  study  of  her  monuments.  It  is  easy  to 
conceive  what  ancient  Rome  was  like  in  1405,  and 
with  what  transports  of  admiration  it  must  have  in- 
spired two  such  artists  as  Brunelleschi  and  Donatello. 
They  seem  to  have  lived  in  a  continual  fever,  making 
drawings,  being  present  at  all  the  excavations,  and 
conducting  some  on  their  own  account ;  spending 
whole  days  among  the  ruins,  measuring  palaces,  tem- 
ples, and  baths,  and  endeavoring  to  discover  the  secret 
of  their  splendor.  Brunelleschi  gradually  came  to 
comprehend  the  principle  of  each  of  the  orders  of  ar- 
chitecture employed  by  the  architects  of  antiquity, 
reasoning  out  the  use  of  the  various  forms,  and  re- 
storing those  parts  which  had  been  destroyed  by  time. 
Thus  it  was  that  he  conceived  the  idea  of  discarding 
the  contorted  and  complicated  forms  of  the  degener- 
ate Gothic  architecture  of  the  day,  and  of  adapting 
to  the  requirements  of  his  own  times  those  which  had 
been  employed  by  the  ancients,  though  a  man  of  so 
much  taste  and  imagination  was  naturally  desirous  to 
make  the  various  parts  of  his  work  harmonize,  and 
to  combine  the  new  forms  which  he  was  anxious  to 
employ  with  those  adopted  by  his  predecessors. 


196  FLORENCE. 

It  was  in  the  seclusion  of  the  Eternal  City  that  he 
elaborated  his  plan  for  the  completion  of  Santa  Maria 
del  Fiore,  the  Duomo  of  Florence,  which  had  been 
left  unfinished  since  the  death  of  Arnolfo  di  Cambio.  It 
is  quite  certain  that  he  had  made  a  special  study  of 
the  vaulted  roofs  of  Thermae  and  Pantheons,  with  the 
firm  intention  of  immortalizing  his  name  by  finishing 
the  cupola  of  Santa  Maria. 

Donatello  having  left  him  at  Rome  in  order  to  carry 
out  the  many  works  which  he  had  undertaken  at 
Florence,  Brunelleschi  continued  his  studies  with  re- 
doubled ardor,  but  having  been  attacked  with  fever, 
he  also  left  Rome  and  returned  to  his  native  city. 
This  was  the  time  when  the  completion  of  the  Duomo 
was  being  pressed  forward,  but  the  task  of  bridging 
over  the  immense  space  seemed  an  impossibility  to 
most  of  the  architects  and  engineers  who  were  called 
in.  The  most  ludicrous  suggestions  were  made,  and 
after  a  general  meeting  of  the  committee,  Brunelleschi, 
thinking  that  his  opinion  was  not  received  with  suf- 
ficient deference,  went  back  to  Rome.  The  commit- 
tee, however,  induced  him  to  return  and  give  them 
the  benefit  of  his  advice. 

His  idea  was  that  a  competition  should  be  opened 
to  artists  of  every  nationality,  each  one  making  a 
model,  though  he  made  no  secret  that  his  own  plan 
would  be  that  of  an  arch  in  one  span.  A  great  many 
of  those  who  were  present  scoffed  at  the  idea  of  such 
a  thing,  but  the  competition  was  opened  in  accord- 


ILLUSTEIOUS  FLORENTINES.  197 

ance  with  his  advice,  and  his  model,  the  existence  of 
which  he  had  kept  secret,  was  at  last  accepted.  But 
a  few  months  afterwards,  Lorenzo  Ghiberti,  who  had 
just  obtained  a  great  success  by  the  execution  of  his 
famous  "  Gate  of  Paradise,"  was  appointed  his  assist- 
ant, and  Brunelleschi,  who  was  much  vexed  at  the 
interference,  and  who  knew  that  Ghiberti  had  no 
aptitude  for  this  description  of  work,  resorted  to  a 
very  ingenious  stratagem  for  getting  rid  of  him.  He 
took  to  his  bed,  and  pretended  to  be  too  ill  to  attend 
to  the  work.  Ghiberti  was  soon  involved  in  hopeless 
difficulties,  and  the  committee  compensating  him  for 
what  he  had  done,  left  Brunelleschi  to  finish  the  work 
by  himself. 

This  was  the  great  achievement  of  his  life,  the  one 
which  has  immortalized  his  name,  and  which  has  un- 
questionably exercised  the  greatest  influence.  Michael 
Angelo,  as  he  looked  up  at  Santa  Maria  del  Fiore  be- 
fore he  commenced  the  dome  of  St.  Peter's,  is  reported 
to  have  exclaimed,  "  I  will  take  you  and  project  you 
into  the  sky." 

His  suggestion  was  an  octagonal  cupola  resting 
upon  a  drum  pierced  with  windows,  which  would 
serve  the  double  purpose  of  letting  in  plenty  of  light 
and  of  lessening  the  weight.  The  artistic  part  of  the 
work,  the  arrangement,  the  architectural  lines,  and 
the  decorative  combinations  are  equally  interesting, 
and  when  one  has  Uved  at  Florence  long  enough  to 
go  into  the  details  of  this  work,  one  cannot  but  ad- 


198  FLORENCR 

mire  the  grandeur  of  the  lines  employed  by  Bnmel- 
leschi,  and  the  ingenious  way  in  which  he  adapted  to 
a  Gothic  building  the  new  style  which  he  had  intro- 
duced. In  order  thoroughly  to  appreciate  the  grand 
general  effects  obtained  by  the  men  of  genius  who 
designed  the  curves  of  the  Pantheon  at  Rome,  of 
Santa  Maria  del  Fiore,  and  of  St.  Peter's,  one  must 
contemplate  on  the  horizon,  from  the  heights  of  the 
Pincio  or  of  Fiesole,  these  bold  constructions  as 
they  stand  out  in  the  twihght,  casting  a  bluish 
shadow  upon  the  golden  background  of  the  setting 
sim. 

Brunelleschi,  being  commissioned  by  the  Pazzi 
family  to  build  a  private  chapel  in  Santa  Croce, 
erected  a  building  which  redounds  very  much  to  his 
credit,  for  it  is  elegant  in  detail  and  full  of  grandeur 
in  its  general  effect.  He  employed  the  Corinthian 
style,  and  with  the  aid  of  Luca  della  Robbia  obtained 
some  very  novel  effects  by  applying  to  the  decoration 
of  the  panels  and  ceilings  the  majolica  ware  discovered 
by  the  latter,  the  result  showing  how  much  a  man 
of  genius  could  make  out  of  this  art  of  glazed  terra- 
cotta. 

The  interior  of  the  chapel,  to  the  decoration  of 
which  Luca  della  Robbia  also  contributed,  is  so  vast 
and  imposing  that  in  1565  four  thousand  friars  met 
there,  the  privilege  of  using  this  chapel  being  ac- 
corded to  the  chapter  of  Santa  Croce  by  the  Pazzi 
family. 


le  whicij 


•:,  and  of  St.  Peter's,  one 
;iti  horizon,  firom  the  heights  of  tli. 

^gix>u!id  of  the  0ettin 


■>.)  fonr  thou 

Qofsters  of  S.  Croce,  and  Pazsi  Chapel 
Srunelleschi 


ILLUSTEIOUS  FLORENTINES.  199 

Brunelleschi  was  also  the  architect  of  the  hand- 
some portico  in  the  Piazza  dell'  Annunziata  which 
forms  the  fagade  of  what  in  his  day  was  called  the 
Ricovero  dei  Grettatelli  (or  Foundling  Hospital).  The 
beauty  and  simplicity  of  these  buildings,  the  sole 
richness  of  which  consists  in  their  elegance  of  shape, 
seeing  that  they  are  destined  for  such  a  humble  pur- 
pose, can  only  be  fully  appreciated  from  the  interior. 
The  hospital  of  the  Innocents  was  begun  in  1421, 
the  Council  being  stimulated  to  undertake  the  work 
by  an  eloquent  appeal  from  Leonardi  Bruni.  On  the 
24th  of  January,  1444,  it  was  opened  and  the  man- 
agement placed  in  the  hands  of  the  Guild  of  Silk 
Workers. 

Filippo  Maria  Visconti  sent  for  Brunelleschi  to 
build  him  a  fortress  at  Milan ;  and  he  was  afterwards 
employed  to  erect  the  citadels  of  Vicopisano,  Pisa, 
and  Pesaro. 

The  church  of  San  Lorenzo  at  Florence,  which 
contains  the  tombs  of  the  Medici,  and  was  erected  at 
the  expense  of  Giovanni  d'Averardo  and  of  Cosimo, 
Father  of  his  Country,  is  also  his  work.  He  had 
proposed  to  erect  the  Medici  Palace  upon  a  much 
more  sumptuous  scale  than  was  afterwards  adopted, 
but  Cosimo  deemed  his  plan  too  magnificent,  and 
Brunelleschi,  who  had  set  his  heart  upon  building  for 
the  House  of  Medici  a  palace  of  unparalleled  splen- 
dor, destroyed  his  model.  He  began  for  the  Scolari 
family  the  curious  temple  Degli  AngeH,  which  was 


200  FLORENCR 

never  completed,  as  the  money  which  had  been  set 
apart  for  it  was  spent  on  the  Lucca  war. 

The  Pitti  Palace  is  also  his  work,  and  as  the  family 
for  which  he  built  had  not  the  means  of  going  on  with 
it,  Eleonora  di  Toledo,  Duchess  of  Florence,  wife  of 
Cosimo,  purchased  it,  and  spent  an  immense  sum  upon 
its  completion.  It  is  a  heavy  building,  and  so  many 
changes  have  been  made  by  successive  architects 
that  it  does  not  produce  nearly  the  effect  it  should. 
In  1549  the  Pitti  Palace  became  a  royal  residence, 
and  Ammanati  added  to  it  the  handsome  courtyard 
upon  which  the  three  inner  facades  look. 

The  services  of  Brunelleschi  were  now  in  request 
throughout  the  whole  of  Italy.  In  1445  the  Marquis 
of  Mantua  wanted  him  for  the  Signoria,  while  Fran- 
cesco Sforza  was  treating  with  him  for  the  fortifica- 
tions of  Pisa,  and  at  about  the  same  time  he  under- 
took the  building  of  the  Barbadori  Palace  and  the 
Casa  Giuntini  at  Florence. 

Brunelleschi  was  the  leading  architect  of  the  fif- 
teenth century,  and  when  he  died  on  the  16th  of 
April,  1446,  he  was  buried  in  Santa  Maria  del  Fiore, 
beneath  that  dome  which  he  raised  to  such  a  height 
that  from  afar  the  traveller  sees  it  as  he  approaches 
the  city. 

Buggiano,  a  sculptor  of  no  great  renown,  carved 
the  bust  over  his  tomb,  and  the  following  inscription, 
composed  by  Marsuppini,  shows  in  what  esteem  he 
was  held  by  his  contemporaries : 


ILLUSTEI0U8  FLORENTINES.  201 

D.  S. 
"  Quantum  Philippus  architectus  arte  Daedalae  valuerit ;  cum 
hujus  celeberrimi  templi  mira  testudo,  turn  plures  machinse  divino 
ingenio  ab  eo  adinventse  documento  esse  possunt.  Quapropter, 
ob  eximias  sui  animi  dotes,  singularesque  virtutes  ejus  b.  m. 
Corpus  XV  kal.  Maias  anno  MCCCCXLVI  in  hac  humo  sup- 
posita  grata  patria  sepeliri  jussit." 

It  cannot  be  said  that  as  regards  the  number  of 
works  executed,  this  great  artist  can  compare  with 
many  of  his  compatriots,  for,  with  the  exception  of 
the  Pazzi  Chapel  at  Santa  Croce,  he  never  had  an 
opportunity  of  erecting  a  complete  monimient,  and 
even  this  chapel  is  only  an  annex  to  the  great  church. 
But  he  was  a  forerunner,  and  so  gifted  with  great 
inventive  powers  that  it  is  not  perhaps  too  much  to 
describe  him  as  the  greatest  man  of  his  age  in  his 
own  domain.  Alberti,  of  course,  played  a  great  part, 
Leonardo  da  Vinci  was  a  prodigy  of  genius,  and 
Michael  Angelo  knows  no  rival,  but  Brunelleschi 
holds  his  own,  and  merits  a  prominent  place  in  the 
Pantheon  of  Florentine  celebrities.  His  ashes  are 
not  in  Santa  Croce,  and  it  is  meet  that  he  should  rest 
in  Santa  Maria  del  Fiore,  the  scene  of  his  greatest 
labors  and  triumphs. 

LEO  BATTISTA  ALBERTI. 
(1404-1472.) 

Alberti  did  not  contribute  so  much  as  Brunelleschi 
to  this  renovation  of  the  arts,  but,  like  all  those  who 


202  FLOBENCE. 

propagate  the  ideas  of  others  by  the  pen,  his  influ- 
ence was  very  considerable.  Upon  the  one  hand 
there  are  the  silent  and  secluded  artists,  whose  prov- 
ince it  is  to  produce  and  to  prove  the  reality  of  progress 
by  marching  in  advance  of  their  contemporaries, 
while,  upon  the  other,  there  are  the  men  of  critical 
mind  who,  more  closely  identified  with  the  movement 
of  their  time,  while  not  idle  themselves,  draw  conclu- 
sions from  the  works  of  others,  and  regulate  the  final 
laws  of  the  new  art  in  which  they  have  been  the  fore- 
runners. Alberti  belonged  to  this  second  category, 
and  while  putting  the  principles  of  Brunelleschi  into 
practice,  he  brought  them  within  the  understanding 
of  the  whole  world,  and  did  much  to  propagate  the 
new  ideas.  Leonardo  da  Vinci,  Daniel  Barbaro,  Fra 
Giocondo,  and  Francesco  Colonna  carried  on  the  same 
work,  and  to  his  well-known  treatises,  "  De  re  ^di- 
ficatoria,"  "De  Pictura,"  and  "De  Componenda 
Statua,"  added  "  The  Commentaries  on  Vitruvius," 
and  that  strange  book  entitled  "  The  Dream  of  Poly- 
phUus,  or  Hypnerotomachia,"  which  is  such  a  curious 
mixture  of  truth  and  fancy. 

The  effect  produced  by  the  construction  of  the 
"  Temple  of  the  Malatestas "  was  very  great,  for  it 
was  no  slight  achievement  at  that  date  to  regulate  the 
laws  and  determine  the  tendency  of  architectural  com- 
positions, while  it  was  an  even  more  marked  success, 
at  a  time  when  a  man  of  genius  like  Brunelleschi  had 
shaken  off  the  fetters  of  ancient  usage  and  struck  out 


ILLUSTRIOUS  FLORENTE^ES.  203 

a  line  of  his  own,  to  confirm  the  value  of  these  prin- 
ciples by  erecting  a  marble  temple,  all  the  architect- 
ural elements  in  which,  while  borrowed  from  antiquity, 
were  modified  and  rejuvenated  by  the  modem  spirit. 
A  natural  son  of  Lorenzo  Alberti  and  of  Margherita 
di  Messer  Piero  Benini,  Leo  Battista  expiated  from 
his  birth  the  ardor  with  which  his  family  had  plunged 
into  a  struggle  against  the  Albizzi  during  the  bloody 
contests  between  the  two  factions  of  black  and  white 
in  the  fourteenth  century.  His  father  and  mother 
were  exiled  to  Genoa,  where  he  was  bom  in  1404, 
and  it  was  only  in  1428  that,  at  the  special  request 
of  Pope  Martin  V.,  the  interdict  which  had  led  to  the 
dispersion  of  this  powerful  family  throughout  Europe 
was  raised.  There  were  several  branches  of  the 
family,  Leo  Battista  belonging  to  that  of  Bernardo 
di  Nerozzo  (1388),  who  married  first  a  Pazzi,  and 
afterwards  a  Gualterio  dei  Bardi.  The  French  Dukes 
Albert  de  Luynes  and  Chaulnes  are  descended  from 
Caroccio  di  Lapo  (1347),  through  Tommaso,  bom  in 
1409.  Between  the  years  1408  and  1417  four  of 
the  Alberti  were  interred  at  Paris  in  the  Vieux 
Augustins  Church,  and  before  the  close  of  the  cen- 
tury more  than  seventy  members  of  this  family  had 
died  in  exile  at  Bruges,  Viviers,  Paris,  Montpellier, 
Avignon,  Genoa,  Brescia,  Mantua,  Padua,  Venice, 
Frioul,  the  Romagna,  London,  Flanders,  and  even  in 
Cyprus,  to  which  they  were  banished  by  a  decree  of 
the  BaHa. 


204  FLORENCK 

The  original  text  of  the  decree,  or  the  "Provisioni," 
is  to  be  found  in  Passerini,  and  the  tenor  of  it  shows 
how  high  party  feeling  ran.  The  first  decree  (1387) 
orders  that  two  leaders  of  the  family  shall  be  exiled 
a  hundred  miles  away  from  Florence,  and  debars  all 
the  other  members  of  the  family  from  the  privilege 
of  holding  any  magisterial  office ;  in  1393  they  are 
all  made  to  suffer  for  a  conspiracy  which  had  been 
hatched  by  one  of  them  ;  and  in  1400  three  of  their 
relatives  are  put  to  the  question  in  order  to  extort 
from  them  a  confession  of  the  latter's  guilt,  and  then 
executed,  the  Grand  Council  deciding  that  all  the 
Alberti,  including  those  not  yet  bom,  shall  be  de- 
prived of  civic  rights.  In  1412  a  reward  of  two 
thousand  gold  florins  (£1800)  is  promised  to  the  per- 
son who  kills  the  four  heads  of  the  Alberti  family  at 
Florence,  and  half  that  sum  to  the  slayer  of  any  one 
Alberti,  provided  that  he  is  not  under  eighteen  years 
of  age.  If  the  slayer  is  himself  in  banishment  he  is 
to  receive  a  full  pardon,  and  if  not,  he  is  entitled  to 
ask  for  the  pardon  of  any  two  friends  ;  while,  for  the 
remainder  of  his  life,  he  is  to  enjoy  the  privilege  of 
carrying  arms.  All  the  Alberti  property  was  con- 
fiscated, and  the  chains  which  formed  their  blazon 
were  removed  from  the  walls  of  the  churches,  chapels, 
and  palaces. 

Such  were  the  conditions  under  which  Leo  Battista 
was  bom,  far  from  the  land  of  his  ancestors  and  his 
father's  home.     We  cannot  wonder,  therefore,  at  the 


ILLUSTRIOUS  FLOKENTINES.  205 

tone  of  bitter  suffering  which  pervades  his  letter  to 
Brunelleschi  when  he  speaks  of  his  long  exile,  and 
his  sold  being  fortified  in  the  school  of  adversity. 
The  Albizzi  persecuted  this  family  with  unwearying 
hatred  until  the  Medici  began  to  get  the  upper  hand, 
and  it  was  not  until  1428  that  justice  was  done  to  one 
of  them,  this  act  of  tardy  clemency  being  completed 
in  1434  by  Cosimo  de'  Medici,  who  reinstated  all  the 
Alberti  in  their  property  and  ancient  dignities. 

The  education  of  Leo  Battista  was  of  course 
affected  by  these  circumstances,  and  he  was  trained 
in  the  midst  of  difficulties  and  struggles.  He  was 
very  proficient  in  all  equestrian  exercises,  and  Mura- 
tori,  in  his  "Rerum  Italicarum  Scriptores,"  repre- 
sents him  as  being  a  great  athlete  at  the  Olympian 
games.  He  completed  his  studies  at  Bologna,  and 
before  he  was  twenty  years  old  had  published  a  Latin 
comedy  entitled  "  Philodoxeos,"  which  he  signed 
"  Lepidus  Comicus."  This  device  was  so  successful 
that  Manuccio,  a  century  and  a  half  afterwards 
(1588),  published  it  at  Lucca  as  being  by  Plautus, 
under  the  title  of  "Lepidi  Comici  veteris  Philodoxeos, 
fabula  ex  antiquitate  eruta."  It  should  be  added, 
however,  that  a  canon  of  Bamberg,  Albert  von  Eyb, 
declared  the  comedy  to  be  of  modem  origin,  and  to 
have  been  the  work  of  Carlo  Marsuppini.  Poggio 
Bracciolini  was  the  confidant  of  Alberti  in  this  mat- 
ter, and  many  years  afterwards  he  revealed  the  secret 
to  Lionel  of  Este.     When  Leo  Battista  was  allowed 


206  FLORENCR 

to  return  to  Florence  in  1428  he  had  already  proved 
himself  to  be  a  man  eager  to  ascertain  and  investigate 
every  subject  of  human  interest,  of  a  generous  dis- 
position, endowed  with  the  most  varied  gifts,  and  a 
worthy  forerunner  of  Leonardo  da  Vinci.  At  first 
engrossed  in  the  study  of  the  law,  he  afterwards  cul- 
tivated the  exact  sciences,  physics,  and  the  art  of 
naval  constructions,  while  with  all  this  he  practiced 
medicine,  and  it  was  only  after  having  given  proof 
of  his  proficiency  in  each  of  these  branches  that  he 
settled  himself  down  to  literature.  He  wrote  in 
Latin,  but  his  Italian  poems  are  still  extant,  and  they 
give  a  complete  contradiction  to  those  who,  during 
his  day,  asserted  that  he  wrote  in  Latin  to  conceal 
the  imperfections  of  his  style  in  Italian.  He  intro- 
duced the  Latin  metre  into  poetry,  and  it  was  con- 
sidered very  venturesome  at  that  time  to  treat  ele- 
vated subjects  in  that  language.  Alberti  would  have 
remained  famous  even  if  he  had  not  written  anything 
more,  for  he  had  already  acquired  great  celebrity  as 
a  physicist  and  an  astronomer.  The  Alberti  bolide 
(perfected  a  long  time  afterwards  by  Cook),  used  for 
measuring  the  depth  of  the  sea,  was  his  invention,  as 
also  were  the  camera  lucida  and  several  instruments 
which  facilitated  an  exact  observation  of  the  stars. 

It  was,  however,  to  architecture,  which  during  the 
Renaissance  necessitated  the  knowledge  and  the  prac- 
tice of  all  the  other  arts,  that  he  owed  his  greatest 
celebrity,  though  he  only  took  to  it  thoroughly  after 


ILLUSTRIOUS  FLORENTINES.  207 

he  had  gone  through  the  multifold  career  described 
above.  Deeply  imbued  with  the  love  of  antiquity, 
and  well  versed  in  the  Latin  and  Greek  manuscripts, 
with  Vitruvius  at  his  fingers'  ends,  and  an  enthusias- 
tic admirer  of  the  monuments  discovered  in  Greece 
and  Italy,  he  determined  to  famiUarize  himself  with 
the  remains  of  the  grand  imperial  epoch.  Biondo  da 
Forli  received  him  at  Rome  and  presented  him  to 
Pope  Nicholas  V.,  and  according  to  Palmieri  and 
Vasari  he  played  a  very  important  part  in  the  execu- 
tion of  the  ambitious  projects  of  this  pontiff,  who  did 
more  for  the  imperial  city  than  any  of  his  predeces- 
sors. Up  to  that  time  Bernardo  RosseUino,  the 
Florentine  architect,  had  been  given  the  supreme 
control  over  the  works,  but  he  was  glad  to  attach 
Alberti  to  him,  and  henceforward  nothing  was  done 
in  Rome  without  their  being  consulted.  Alberti  was 
created  a  prelate,  and  invested  with  benefices  which 
made  him  independent,  and  in  1447  he  received  the 
dignity  of  canon  and  the  title  of  prelate  of  Borgo  San 
Lorenzo  and  of  San  Martino  at  Gangalandi.  Pius  II. 
retained  him  at  the  Vatican,  and  made  him  Secretary 
of  the  Apostolic  Letters. 

It  was  during  this  period,  with  the  monuments  of 
antiquity  before  his  eyes,  and  in  the  companionship 
of  Biondo  da  Forli,  the  author  of  "  Roma  Instaurata," 
and  the  real  creator  of  archaeology,  that  it  occurred 
to  him  that  there  was  no  reason  why  the  classic  forms 
should  not  be  combined  with  those  imposed  by  mod- 


208  FLOEENCE. 

em  necessities.  Alberti  was  thoroughly  engrossed  in 
this  new  architectural  departure  when  Sigismund 
Malatesta  asked  him  to  come  to  Rimini,  and  confer 
with  him  as  to  the  building  of  a  temple.  He  accepted 
the  invitation  with  the  assent  of  the  Pope,  who  was 
indebted  to  Malatesta  for  the  way  in  which  he  had  led 
the  pontifical  troops  to  victory  j  but,  as  he  could  not 
remain  long,  he  left  as  proto  maestro^  or  overseer, 
Matteo  da  Pasti,  of  Verona,  who  was  a  pensioner  of 
Malatesta,  and  to  whom  we  owe  the  excellent  medal- 
lions of  Sigismund  and  Isotta.  This  shows  how  varied 
were  the  gifts  of  most  great  artists  during  the  fifteenth 
century.  There  is  nothing  to  show  that  Alberti  re- 
turned to  Rimini  after  the  inauguration  of  the  Tem- 
ple in  1450,  but  he  had  made  himself  a  very  great 
favorite  with  Sigismund,  who  desired  that  his  medal- 
lion should  be  placed  opposite  to  his  own  above  his 
tomb. 

The  greatest  works  of  Alberti,  those  which  have 
insured  his  celebrity,  were  executed  after  his  first 
visit  to  Rome.  To  begin  with,  he  built  St.  Pancras 
for  Cosimo  Rucellai,  and  he  then  designed  the  beau- 
tiful facade  of  Santa  Maria  Novella.  In  conjunction 
with  Bnmelleschi,  who  had  been  commissioned  to 
build  the  Foundling  Hospital  in  the  Piazza  dell'  An- 
nunziata,  he  decorated  the  interior  of  the  church  of 
that  name,  preparing  the  designs  for  the  tribune,  the 
chapel,  and  the  cupolas.  It  was  during  this  period 
that  he  made  his  longest  stay  at  Florence,  living  in 


ILLUSTRIOUS  FLORENTINES.  209 

the  intimacy  of  Lorenzo  de'  Medici,  and  making  one 
in  those  celebrated  gatherings  in  the  Camaldoli  woods 
with  Ficino,  Acciaiuoli,  and  Rinuccini.  In  addition 
to  Malatesta,  Rucellai,  and  Lorenzo  de'  Medici ;  Louis 
Gonzaga  Marquis  of  Mantua,  furnished  Alberti  with 
an  opportunity  of  displaying  his  views  in  regard 
to  architecture,  intrusting  to  him  the  erection  in 
that  city  of  a  basilica  dedicated  to  St.  Andrew, 
where  repose  the  remains  of  Andrea  Mantegna.  Al- 
berti availed  himself  of  it,  and  St.  Andrew's,  like  the 
Temple  of  Rimini,  oflfers  one  of  the  earliest  instances 
of  the  revival  of  classic  architecture. 

The  princes  of  the  houses  of  Este,  Montefeltro, 
Gonzaga,  Malatesta,  and  Medici,  whose  cause  his 
family  had  espoused  with  great  ardor,  were  all  anx- 
ious to  attach  him  to  their  service,  but  Nicholas  V., 
Pius  n.,  and  Sixtus  IV.  almost  monopolized  him, 
more  particularly  the  first-named  pontiff,  whose  aim 
it  was  to  change  the  face  of  Rome.  He  had  requested 
him  to  erect  fountains,  squares,  and  oratories,  and  he 
was  also  anxious  to  roof  in  the  bridge  of  St.  Angelo 
so  as  to  make  a  covered  way  to  the  Mole  of  Hadrian. 
It  is  easy,  therefore,  to  understand  that  Florence, 
many  as  were  the  attractions  she  oiFered  him  after  so 
long  an  absence,  failed  to  retain  him,  and  he  settled 
definitely  at  Rome,  where  he  died  in  the  spring  of 
1472,  as  is  proved  by  the  remark  of  Matteo  Pahnieri, 
Apostolic  Secretary  to  Sixtus  IV.,  in  his  book  "  De 
Temporibus  suis."     His  ashes,  which  were  tempora- 

14 


210  FLORENCE. 

rily  deposited  in  the  church  from  which  he  took  his 
ecclesiastical  title,  were  transferred  to  Florence  and 
placed  in  the  family  tomb. 

Alberti  had  obtained  an  imrivalled  position  in  his 
own  line,  his  social  rank  helping  in  some  measure  to 
establish  his  fame.  Moreover,  all  humanists  occu- 
pied a  higher  place  in  the  intellectual  hierarchy  than 
the  ordinary  artist,  who  was  looked  upon  as  a  supe- 
rior kind  of  mechanic.  The  whole  history  of  Alberti 
may  be  gleaned  from  the  various  works  which  he  has 
left  behind  him.  In  his  "  Trattato  della  Famiglia  " 
he  speaks  with  pride  of  his  ancient  lineage,  and  Ma- 
chiavelli  represents  the  Alberti  as  being  "  more  like 
princes  than  private  individuals."  The  hatred  of  the 
Albizzi  seems  to  have  known  no  abatement,  and  dur- 
ing the  greater  part  of  his  life  Leo  Battista  never 
went  abroad  without  an  escort  of  armed  men  lent  him 
by  Cardinal  Alberti. 

As  an  artist  his  conceptions  were  grandiose  and 
noble,  but  in  the  details  of  ornamentation  his  style  is 
rather  hard,  and  in  endeavoring  to  reproduce  Attic 
elegance  he  occasionally  mistakes  meagreness  for 
grace.  His  favorite  motive  in  ornamentation  was 
the  palm  copied  from  ancient  tablets. 

As  a  writer  he  was  very  erudite  and  capable  of 
great  eloquence,  notably  in  the  passage  upon  the 
tombs  in  his  "  De  re  ^dificatoria,"  while  in  his  pri- 
vate correspondence  his  predominant  characteristic 
was  affable  simplicity.     Angelo  Politian  pronoimced 


ILLUSTEIOUS  FLORENTINES.  211 

his  funeral  oration,  and  Cristoforo  Landino  passed  a 
glowing  eulogium  upon  him  in  his  "  Commentary  on 
Dante." 

The  features  of  Albert!  are  preserved  to  us  first  in 
the  medallion  by  Matteo  da  Pasti,  which  has  on  the 
reverse  a  winged  eye  with  the  motto  Quid  tuniy  sur- 
rounded by  a  laurel  wreath,  and  by  the  beautiful 
plaquette  in  the  Dreyfus  Collection.  A  replica  of 
this  plaquette,  which  was  in  the  collection  of  the  late 
M.  His  de  la  Salle,  is  in  the  Italian  Renaissance  sculp- 
ture-room at  the  Louvre,  but  it  does  not  bear  the 
initials  of  Leo  Battista,  though  the  most  competent 
judges  have  been  of  opinion  that  it  is  his  own  handi- 
work. 

The  church  of  San  Francesco  da  Rimini  contains  a 
third  likeness  of  him,  but  this  is  only  an  enlarged  re- 
production of  Matteo's  medallion. 

MAECILIO  FICINO. 

(1433-1499.) 

Marcilio  Ficino  was  the  son  of  a  skilful  surgeon  at- 
tached to  the  Medici  family,  who,  though  a  native  of 
Florence,  had  sent  his  son  to  the  University  of 
Bologna,  because  medical  studies  were  much  more 
advanced  there  than  in  any  other  city  of  the  penin- 
sula. Marcilio  occasionally  came  to  see  his  father  in 
the  Medici  Palace,  and  having  on  one  occasion  been 
presented  to  Cosimo  the  Elder,  he  had  the  good  for- 
tune to  make  a  favorable  impression  by  his  modest 


212  FLORENCE. 

demeanor  and  precocious  erudition.  Instead  of  de- 
voting himself  specially  to  the  study  of  medicine, 
like  his  father,  Marcilio  developed  a  great  fondness 
for  philosophy,  and  learnt  by  heart  all  the  principal 
authors.  Cosimo,  who  was  much  pleased  to  find  in 
him  a  disciple  of  the  philosophy  to  which  he  himself 
was  so  warmly  attached,  kept  him  at  Florence,  gave 
him  a  lodging  in  the  palace,  facilitated  the  continu- 
ance of  his  study,  and  got  his  father  to  consent  to  his 
change  of  profession.  In  1456,  when  only  twenty- 
three  years  of  age,  he  published  "  The  Platonician 
Institutions,"  and  Cosimo  and  Cristoforo  Landino, 
both  very  competent  judges,  admired  the  work,  but 
exhorted  the  >vriter  not  to  read  Plato  in  the  Latin  or 
the  vulgar  tongue,  but  to  study  Greek  profoundly 
enough  to  be  able  to  consult  the  original.  The  re- 
sults of  this  study  were  the  translation  cf  "  The  Ori- 
gin of  the  World,"  attributed  to  Mercurius  Trisme- 
gistus,  and  the  "  Choral  Hymns."  We  know  from 
Tiraboschi,  and  also  from  the  private  letters  of  Co- 
simo, that  Marcilio  sang  the  hymns,  accompanying 
himself  on  the  lyre.  Cosimo  soon  became  so  attached 
to  his  society  that  he  gave  him  a  small  property  near 
Careggi,  a  town  house,  and  a  small  collection  of 
Greek  manuscripts  beautiftJly  ornamented  with  minia- 
tures like  those  in  the  Laurentiana. 

It  was  at  this  period  that  Cosimo  was  meditating 
the  formation  of  the  Platonian  Academy,  referred  to 
in  the  chapter  devoted  to  the  Father  of  his  Country, 


ILLUSTEIOUS  FLORENTINES.  213 

and  Marcilio,  as  has  been  said,  was  selected  by  him 
to  organize  this  assembly,  which  met  beneath  the 
trees  of  Cosimo's  garden  at  Careggi. 

Piero  de'  Medici,  at  the  death  of  Cosimo,  showed 
him  great  favor,  causing  his  manuscripts  to  be  copied, 
advocating  his  views  with  great  warmth,  and  arous- 
ing general  enthusiasm  both  for  himself  and  his  pro- 
teg6,  by  insisting  upon  his  expounding  his  doctrines 
from  the  pulpit.  It  was  from  Florence,  as  is  pointed 
out  in  the  chapter  on  the  Renaissance,  that  the  study 
of  Plato  and  the  observance  of  his  doctrines  were 
spread  throughout  the  whole  of  Italy,  and  even  of 
Europe,  and  the  initial  credit  of  this  is  due  to  Marcilio 
Ficino,  who  was  nominated  by  Lorenzo  the  Magnifi- 
cent to  a  canonry  in  the  cathedral  of  Florence,  and 
to  two  rich  benefices.  This  gave  a  fresh  direction 
to  his  studies,  and  he  turned  his  attention  to  theology, 
his  familiarity  with  Plato  enabling  him  in  his  sermons 
to  draw  from  the  writings  of  the  Greek  philosopher 
arguments  in  favor  of  the  divinity.  In  this  connec- 
tion his  doctrines  were  not  much  else  than  heathen 
as  he  drew  a  comparison  between  Socrates  and  Christ, 
and  found  an  explanation  for  all  the  mysteries  of  the 
Catholic  Faith  in  the  works  of  Plato.  His  sermons 
soon  became  famous,  but  they  appealed  more  to  the 
intellect  than  to  the  heart,  and  were  not,  therefore, 
much  appreciated  by  the  common  people. 

Marcilio  Ficino's  private  character  was  without 
blemish ;  he  was  affable,  simple-minded,  and  gener- 


214  FLORENCK 

0U8,  the  few  intimate  friends  in  whose  society  he 
spent  most  of  his  time  being  passionately  devoted  to 
him,  while  the  letters  of  Lorenzo  to  him  breathe  a 
spirit  of  enthusiastic  attachment.  He  had,  however, 
Jiis  moments  of  aberration,  and  it  may  be  that  towards 
the  close  of  his  life  the  constant  study  of  the  Platonic 
philosophy  had  in  some  measure  affected  his  intellect. 
Thus,  for  instance,  he  was  a  fervent  believer  in  the 
supernatural,  and  according  to  an  anecdote  quoted  by 
Tiraboschi  and  his  other  biographers,  believed  in  the 
doctrine  of  metempsychosis.  Arguing  one  day  with 
his  disciple,  Mercati,  as  to  the  immortality  of  the  soul, 
it  was  agreed  that  whichever  of  the  two  died  first 
should  come  and  warn  the  other,  and  Mercati  after- 
wards declared  that  on  the  day  of  Ficino's  death  a 
phantom  horseman  stopped  at  his  door  and  exclaimed, 
"  Michael,  Michael,  what  I  told  you  is  true." 

The  reputation  of  Marcilio  Ficino  extended  as  far 
as  Hungary,  and  the  learned  Matthias  Corvinus 
pressed  him  to  come  to  his  Court,  while  Sixtus  IV. 
wrote  him  an  autograph  letter,  offering  him  a  pension 
and  a  residence  at  the  Vatican  j  but  nothing  would 
induce  him  to  leave  Careggi,  where,  for  the  matter 
of  that,  he  was  very  well  off. 

The  works  of  Marcilio  are  very  numerous,  but 
though  they  began  to  be  published  separately  at 
Florence  in  1489,  the  first  complete  edition  is  dated 
Venice,  1516,  and  that  was  put  through  the  press 
four  times.     The  nomenclature  of  all  these  works 


ILLUSTRIOUS  FLORENTINES.  215 

would  be  very  dry,  and  those  who  may  care  for  full 

particulars  may  be  referred  to  Tiraboschi  and  other 

specialist  writers. 

t 
BERNARDO  PULCL 

(1425-1494.) 

Pulci  descends  from  a  family  of  poets,  and  Ber- 
nardo, the  eldest,  was  one  of  the  ornaments  of  the 
Court  of  Lorenzo  the  Magnificent,  endearing  himself 
to  the  Medici  by  composing  sonnets  for  them  like  a 
poet  laureate.  His  first  elegy  upon  the  death  of 
Cosimo  the  Elder  won  him  the  favor  of  Piero  il  Got- 
toso,  and  at  the  death  of  Simonetta,  the  beautiful 
mistress  of  Giuliano,  whose  portrait  has  been  pre- 
served to  us  by  Sandro  Botticelli,  he  wrote  another 
elegy  which  would  give  a  high  idea  of  the  deceased 
lady's  qualities  did  we  not  know  how  ready  Court 
poets  always  are  to  say  complimentary  things. 

Pulci  translated  into  Italian  verse  Virgil's  Bucolics, 
and  he  has  been  credited  with  the  poem  "  Mbrgante," 
which,  however,  was  in  reality  written  by  his  brother 
Luigi.  This  work  does  not  give  a  very  favorable 
idea  of  the  prevailing  moraUty;  but  it  was  read  aloud 
at  the  literary  gatherings,  which  resembled  those  at 
Careggi,  and  at  which  the  pious  Lucrezia  Tomabuoni, 
wife  of  Piero,  presided.  It  is,  however,  written  in 
very  chaste  language,  is  full  of  interesting  descrip- 
tions, and,  with  its  vivid  and  dashing  style  can- 
not well  fail  to  please.     Bernardo  Pulci  had  a  wife, 


216  FLORENCR 

Antonia,  who  wrote  several  dramatic  pieces  of  the 
passion-play  style,  and  the  poet  himself,  at  the  close 
of  his  life,  was  curator  of  the  Academy  of  Pisa,  his 
connection  with  the  history  of  literature  not  being 
traceable  subsequent  to  1494. 

Besides  Luigi,  there  was  a  younger  brother  named 
Luca,  who  lived  at  the  Court  of  Lorenzo,  and  who 
has  celebrated  the  great  tournament  of  1468,  which 
is  the  only  guide  we  have  to  the  character  of  these 
splendid  entertainments.  He  has  left  several  other 
works,  including  the  "  Giriflfo,"  a  tale  of  chivalry,  and 
"  H  Driade  d'  Amor,"  a  pastoral  poem  in  four  cantos. 

Bernardo  was  the  most  famous  of  the  three  brothers 
at  the  time,  but  Luigi,  as  the  author  of  "  Morgante/' 
has  achieved  the  most  enduring  fame. 

DOMENICO  BUKCHIELLO. 
(139..-1448.) 

Burchiello's  name  is  often  quoted  by  persons  who 
have  never  read  any  of  his  poems.  He  was  a  barber 
by  trade,  and  was  doubtless  one  of  those  who  helped 
to  found  the  Barbers'  Salon  in  Italy,  a  sort  of  club 
open  to  all  the  world,  in  which  the  latest  news  and 
gossip  are  retailed.  A  foreigner  visiting  Italy  for 
the  first  time  will  be  struck  by  the  countless  number 
of  hairdressers'  shops  in  which  the  modem  Burchiello 
is  awaiting  his  customers,  and  in  the  evening  people 
meet  there  and  converse,  seated  upon  large  sofas 
which  are  placed  round  the  room. 


ILLUSTEIOUS  FLOEENTINES.  217 

Burchiello,  a  barber  and  the  son  of  a  barber,  had 
his  shop,  in  the  first  years  of  the  fifteenth  century, 
in  the  Calimara  quarter,  near  the  old  market.  He 
was  so  ready-witted  and  gay  that  his  name  became 
as  synonymous  for  good-humor  and  quickness  of 
repartee  as  that  of  Figaro  did  three  hundred  years 
later.  Courtiers  and  townspeople  repaired  to  his 
shop,  and  in  the  Medici  Gallery  may  be  seen  a  pict- 
ure representing  the  establishment  divided  into  two 
portions,  in  one  of  which  customers  were  shaved, 
while  the  other  was  reserved  for  the  regular  fre- 
quenters, who  chatted,  or  played,  or  recited  verses 
when  Burchiello's  tongue  was  not  going. 

He  wrote  sonnets  which  passed  through  eight  edi- 
tions in  various  countries  before  the  fifteenth  century 
was  over,  though  they  are  so  fantastic  and  incompre- 
hensible that  it  is  difficult  to  understand  what  they 
mean  :  for  all  the  learned  commentaries  of  Varchi 
and  Dona,  Dandolo  has  no  hesitation  in  pronounc- 
ing these  sonnets  to  be  unintelligible  to  those  who  do 
not  understand  the  fishwife's  vocabulary.  The  only 
thing  to  commend  about  them  is  that  they  are  viva- 
cious, and  full  of  that  fire  which  pleases  the  common 
people. 

SAVONAEOLA. 
(1462-1498.) 

Fra  Girolamo  Savonarola,  monk  of  the  Dominican 
order,  was  born  at  Ferrara  on  the  21st  of  September, 
1452,  and,  though  not  properly  speaking  a  Floren- 


218  FLORENCK 

tine,  he  belongs  to  the  history  of  that  city,  so  promi- 
nent a  part  did  he  play  in  the  politics  and  intellectual 
movement  of  his  day.  With  the  ardor  of  a  Peter  the 
Hermit  and  the  imabated  fanaticism  of  a  tribune  of 
the  people,  which  cost  him  his  life,  he  sought  to 
weaken  the  influence  of  the  Medici,  and  to  maintain 
the  Republican  form  of  Government  in  Florence. 
He  did  not  scruple  to  call  upon  the  Pope  to  suppress 
abuses,  and  even  endeavored  to  put  a  check  upon 
his  temporal  power,  and,  like  the  austere  reformer 
that  he  was,  set  his  face  against  the  prevailing  ideas 
in  regard  to  art  and  literature,  considering  them  to 
be  infected  with  paganism,  and  denouncing  them 
from  the  pulpit  on  this  ground.  His  eloquence,  his 
enthusiasm,  and  his  fire,  his  sombre  genius,  his  bound- 
less courage,  and  the  matchless  audacity  and  coolness 
which  denoted  an  immovable  conviction,  made  him 
one  of  the  most  remarkable  figures  in  the  history  of 
Florence  during  the  close  of  the  fifteenth  century,  and 
the  flames  which  consumed  his  body  have  formed  a 
halo  of  martyrdom  around  his  head,  though  there  were 
those  who  professed  to  regard  him  as  an  impostor. 

His  father's  name  was  Niccol6,  and  his  mother  was 
Elena  Buonaccorsi,  the  family  being  of  Mantuan 
origin.  Austere  and  serious  as  a  child,  there  seemed 
to  be  something  in  him  which  foretold  a  stormy 
career.  His  earliest  studies  were  theology  and  philos- 
ophy, and  his  favorite  author  was  St.  Thomas  Aquinas, 
though  he  wrote  a  few  poems  in  his  youth  which  are 


ILLUSTEIOUS  FLOEENTINES.  219 

still  extant.  He  had  his  first  vision  at  the  age  of 
two-and-twenty,  when  it  seemed  to  him,  one  night, 
that  a  cold  rain  had  penetrated  to  his  very  bones, 
and  annihilated  all  the  fermentation  of  youth,  and 
allayed  for  ever  the  longings  of  the  flesh.  After  this 
vision  he  went  off  to  Bologna,  without  communicating 
his  intentions  to  any  one,  and  assumed  the  robe  of 
a  Dominican.  He  soon  manifested  his  great  gifts, 
and  his  superiors  gave  him  the  chairs  of  dialectics 
and  metaphysics.  He  remained  for  seven  years  in 
Bologna,  going  from  thence  to  Florence,  where  he  at 
once  took  up  his  residence  at  San  Marco,  and  made 
his  debut  as  a  preacher  in  San  Lorenzo  during  Lent. 
He  failed,  however,  to  make  any  impression  upon  the 
Florentines,  who  were  formed  in  the  school  of  Boc- 
caccio and  Marsuppini,  and  finding  this  to  be  the  case, 
he  resolved  to  confine  himself  in  future  to  expound- 
ing Holy  Writ.  Having  been  sent  by  his  superiors 
to  preach  in  Lombardy,  he  returned  to  Florence  at 
the  request  of  Lorenzo  the  Magnificent,  to  whom 
Pico  della  Mirandola  had  described  him  as  being  a 
man  of  great  promise,  well  versed  in  Holy  Writ,  and 
deserving  of  the  highest  interest. 

In  1490  he  commenced,  in  the  church  of  San 
Marco,  a  series  of  lectures  upon  the  Apocalypse,  and 
basing  his  arguments  upon  the  obscurity  of  this  book, 
he  declared  that  it  foretold  the  immediate  ruin  of 
Florence,  unless  she  reformed  her  ways.  He  called 
upon  the  Church  to  regenerate  herself,  and  upon  her 


220  FLORENCE, 

clergy  to  give  up  the  licentious  life  which  so  many 
of  them  led,  threatening  them  with  the  Divine  ven- 
geance in  the  sentence  engraved  on  the  medallion : 
"  Gladius  Domini  super  Terram,  Ceto  et  Velociter." 
His  preaching  created  a  feeling  of  terror  throughout 
Florence,  but  his  threats  of  chastisement  seemed  to 
fascinate  the  people,  and  as  St.  Mark's  was  too  small 
for  the  congregations  which  pressed  to  hear  him,  he 
preached  the  following  year  in  the  Duomo.  For 
eight  years  he  had  the  whole  city  at  his  feet,  and 
when  he  came  down  from  the  pulpit  on  his  way  back 
to  the  monastery  of  St.  Mark  he  had  to  be  protected 
from  the  enthusiastic  demonstrations  of  the  ardent 
and  impressionable  crowd. 

It  is  difficult  at  this  distance  of  time  to  form  an 
idea  of  what  his  eloquence  was  like,  but  it  apparently 
was  marked  rather  by  energy  and  natural  inspiration 
than  by  elevation  of  ideas  and  finish.  As  he  went 
straight  to  the  hearts  of  the  people,  there  must  have 
been  a  tinge  of  vidgarity  which  touched  the  instinct 
of  the  masses,  and  a  certain  tone  of  tenderness  which 
had  its  effect  upon  the  strongest,  for  upon  one  occa- 
sion the  whole  congregation  burst  into  sobs,  beating 
their  breasts  and  manifesting  their  contrition  in  other 
ways.  Savonarola  was  an  extemporary  preacher, 
but  one  of  the  congregation  took  down  his  sermons, 
and  manuscript  copies  of  them  were  widely  circulated 
until  the  art  of  printing  enabled  them  to  be  repro- 
duced with  a  wealth  of  illustration. 


ILLUSTKIOUS  FLOKENTINES.  221 

In  July,  1491,  he  became  prior  of  St.  Mark's.  It 
was  a  custom  in  the  convent  that  on  the  election  of  a 
new  prior  he  should  go  and  do  homage  to  the  civil 
authority.  As  Lorenzo  de'  Medici  was  an  intimate 
friend  of  Pico  della  Mirandola,  who  was  the  sworn 
aUy  of  Savonarola,  it  might  be  supposed  that  the  lat- 
ter would  have  conformed  to  the  general  usage  ;  but 
instead  of  doing  so  he  denounced  the  tyranny  of  Lo- 
renzo, and  accused  him  of  undermining  the  liberties 
of  the  people.  Lorenzo  had  on  a  previous  occasion 
sent  him  a  delegation  composed  of  five  or  six  citizens, 
begging  him  not  to  excite  still  more  a  people  which 
had  always  been  the  sport  of  its  own  passions ;  but 
his  answer  to  this  was  a  fresh  tirade,  in  which  he  an- 
nounced the  early  death  of  the  chief  of  the  State. 
The  fulfilment  of  this,  as  of  some  of  his  other  predic- 
tions, gave  additional  force  to  his  fervid  declamations 
and  mystic  utterances.  In  the  life  of  Lorenzo  the  de- 
tails of  Savonarola's  visit  to  him  on  his  death-bed  are 
given  in  full,  and  need  not,  therefore,  be  repeated 
here. 

With  all  his  fanaticism  Savonarola  was  a  true  pa- 
triot, and  on  more  than  one  occasion  he  proved  his 
devotion  to  Florence.  When  Charles  VIII.  was  ad- 
vancing on  the  city  the  Dominican  monk  went  forth 
to  meet  him,  and  adjured  him  so  vehemently  in  the 
name  of  God  that  the  king  was  induced  to  adopt  a 
more  conciliatory  poHcy.  The  speech  which  Savo- 
narola made  is  included  in  his  "  Eevelazioni."     It  is 


222  FLOKENCR 

true  that  Charles  and  his  army  were  only  gotten  rid 
of  through  the  fearless  bearing  of  Piero  Capponi  com- 
bined with  Savonarola's  influence  and  the  payment 
by  the  RepubUc  of  a  large  sum  of  money. 

Savonarola  was  at  one  time  very  nearly  being  suc- 
cessful in  his  struggle  against  the  Medici,  for  when 
Piero,  the  son  of  Lorenzo,  had  been  exiled,  he  sub- 
mitted to  the  Signoria  the  new  form  of  government 
which,  according  to  his  views,  would  insure  the  su- 
premacy of  the  people.  It  was  at  his  instance  that 
the  first  popular  parliament  was  convoked  in  the 
Palazzo  Vecchio,  but,  as  I  have  shown  in  a  previous 
chapter,  it  did  not  last  long. 

The  political  purpose  which  he  was  pursuing  did 
not  cause  him  to  slacken  his  crusade  against  the 
Papacy.  His  constant  theme  was  simony,  the  disso- 
lute conduct  of  the  clergy,  the  scandalous  habits  of 
the  prelates,  the  cardinals,  and  the  Pope  himself,  and 
the  general  looseness  of  ecclesiastical  morals  and  dis- 
cipline. The  occupant  of  the  Papal  throne  at  that 
time  was  the  infamous  Alexander  VI.,  the  father  of 
Caesar  Borgia,  of  the  Duke  of  Candia,  who  was  mur- 
dered by  his  own  brother,  and  of  Lucrezia  Borgia  j 
and  as  he  felt  these  accusations  to  be  true,  and  dreaded 
their  effect  when  launched  from  the  second  city  in 
Italy,  he  summoned  the  Dominican  monk  to  Rome  in 
order  to  reprimand  him  for  his  doctrines.  Savonarola 
was  able  to  excuse  himself  on  the  ground  of  ill-health 
from  coming  to  Rome,  and  was  as  a  matter  of  fact 


ILLUSTRIOUS  FLORENTINES.  223 

obliged  to  renounce  preaching  and  work  of  all  kinds, 
and  remain  for  some  time  in  seclusion  at  San  Marco. 

But  his  silence  did  not  last  long,  and  when  he 
again  ascended  the  pulpit  he  spoke  with  even  greater 
vehemence  against  the  Pope,  writing  to  all  the  sov- 
ereigns of  Europe,  and  asking  them  to  convoke  a 
General  Council  for  the  deposition  of  the  Pontiff,  as 
guilty  of  crimes  which  he  imdertook  to  prove. 

Alexander  VI.  offered  him  a  cardinal's  hat  on  con- 
dition that  he  would  change  the  tenor  of  his  dis- 
courses. Savonarola,  however,  treated  the  proposal 
with  scorn,  and  made  it  the  subject  of  a  sermon  in 
order  to  prove  the  charges  of  venality  in  connection 
with  ecclesiastical  offices  which  he  had  been  preferring 
against  the  Court  of  Rome. 

The  city,  however,  was  divided  into  two  camps, 
upon  the  one  side  being  the  adherents  of  the  Medici, 
who  were  the  natural  enemies  of  Savonarola,  and  who 
were  styled  the  Arrabiati,  while  on  the  other  were 
his  partisans,  known  as  the  Piagnoni.  The  most 
fanatical  of  the  latter  were  Fra  Domenico  da  Pescia 
and  Fra  Silvestro  Maruffi,  the  first  named  of  whom 
succeeded  Savonarola  in  the  pulpit  about  1496,  and 
commenced  a  crusade  against  all  kinds  of  profane 
objects,  such  as  books,  statuary,  drawings,  paintings, 
miniatures,  jewelry,  dress,  musical  instruments,  and 
perfumes.  The  people  of  Florence  were  possessed 
of  a  frenzy,  and  condemned  to  the  flames  everything 
which  was  susceptible  of  exciting  worldly  thoughts, 


224  FLORENCR 

or  which  was  used  for  the  adornment  of  the  person. 
There  was  a  wild  outburst  of  fanaticism,  and,  with  a 
blind  fury  reminding  us  of  the  Iconoclasts,  priceless 
works  of  art  were  destroyed  in  that  year,  when  for 
the  first  time  the  tolerance  for  which  Italy  had  always 
been  conspicuous  was  forgotten.  It  is  strange  to  note 
that  in  the  fifteenth  century,  under  the  rule  of  the 
Medici,  books  and  works  of  art  should  have  been  con- 
signed to  the  flames. 

In  Italy  the  Renaissance  had  never  been  in  actual 
opposition  to  Christianity,  for  the  revelation  of  the 
antique  world  to  modem  society  did  not  come  into 
collision  with  the  great  tradition  of  the  Christian  re- 
ligion, which  had  constituted  the  strength  of  Italy. 
It  was  possible  to  venerate  Plato,  and  even  to  keep  a 
lamp  burning  before  his  bust  as  before  an  altar,  with- 
out undermining  the  Catholic  faith,  as  is  proved  by 
the  many  pious  foundations  of  the  day,  and  by  the 
great  liberality  of  the  wealthy  in  employing  the  most 
famous  artists  to  build  churches  and  chapels. 

A  band  of  children  was  at  this  time  formed  by  Fra 
Domenico,  and  dressed  in  white,  the  emblem  of  purity, 
they  went  roimd  to  the  various  houses  and  collected 
the  objects  which  were  anathema.  This  lasted 
throughout  the  carnival,  and  on  Shrove  Tuesday  they 
were  made  into  a  gigantic  bonfire  on  the  Piazza  della 
Signoria,  Fra  Domenico  assembling  the  children  in 
Santa  Maria  del  Fiore,  where  he  celebrated  mass,  and 
going  with  them  from  thence  to  San  MarcO;  the  boys 


ILLUSTRIOUS  FLORENTINES.  225 

carrying  red  crosses  in  their  hands,  and  wearing 
wreaths  of  olive-branches.  In  the  flames  which  arose 
from  the  Piazza  were  consumed  manuscripts  of 
Boccaccio  and  Petrarch,  priceless  works  of  sculpture 
and  of  painting,  and  specimens  of  the  goldsmith's  craft, 
never  so  perfect  as  at  Florence  in  the  fifteenth  century. 

Burlamachi  says  that  in  1498  the  enthusiasm  was 
80  great  that  the  ceremony  had  to  be  repeated,  and 
that  the  procession  of  neophytes  was  headed  by  Savo- 
narola himself,  crucifix  in  hand.  Burlamachi  adds 
that,  "  Having  reached  the  Piazza,  they  found  the 
bonfire  larger  than  before,  among  the  articles  in  the 
holocaust  being  antique  female  busts  of  great  beauty 
— ^busts  of  the  beautiful  Bencina,  Lena  Morella,  Bina, 
Maria  de  Lenzi,  by  the  greatest  sculptors.  There 
was  a  bust  of  Petrarch,  adorned  with  gold  and  minia- 
tures, which  was  worth  fifty  gold  crowns,  and  a  watch 
was  kept  over  the  bonfire  to  see  that  nothing  was  re- 
moved. When  the  procession  arrived  it  drew  up  in 
a  circle  around  the  pyramid,  which  was  sprinkled 
with  holy  water,  amid  the  singing  of  hymns.  Then 
came  the  captains  of  districts,  who  set  fire  to  the  bon- 
fire to  the  sound  of  bells,  trumpets,  and  other  instru- 
ments of  music,  and  amid  the  joyful  exclamations  of 
the  people,  who  chanted  the  '  Te  Deum.' " 

About  1497  "  The  Triumph  of  the  Cross  "  made 
its  appearance,  the  greatest  of  his  writings,  and  in 
the  latter  part  of  the  same  year  Savonarola  openly 
defied  the  Papal   excommunication.     A  Franciscan 

15 


226  FLORENCE. 

named  Francesco  da  Puglia  was  at  the  head  of  the 
party  which  regarded  Savonarola  and  Fra  Domenico 
as  heretics,  and  as  the  latter  had  the  fanaticism  to  de- 
clare from  the  pulpit  of  St.  Mark  that  the  flames 
would  have  no  hold  on  him  or  his  master,  the  Fran- 
ciscan took  up  the  challenge. 

A  whole  host  of  priests,  women  and  children  were 
80  convinced  that  the  fire  would  not  bum  Savonarola 
or  his  disciple  that  they  were  ready  to  follow  them 
through  the  flames,  when,  on  the  7th  of  April,  1498, 
the  weird  experiment  was  tried  on  the  square  in  front 
of  the  Palazzo  Vecchio.  First  came  Fra  Francesco 
da  Puglia,  followed  by  the  monks  of  his  order,  with- 
out any  show  or  ornaments,  and  then  followed  Savo- 
narola himself,  and  the  Dominicans  in  full  ecclesiasti- 
cal dress,  and  carrying  the  Host. 

A  long  discussion  arose  as  to  whether  the  condi- 
tions were  equal — ^whether  the  Dominicans  ought  not 
to  wear  the  same  plain  robe  as  the  Franciscans,  and 
whether  the  Host  which  they  carried  with  them  might 
not  afford  them  miraculous  protection.  While  the 
argument  was  being  carried  on  heavy  rain  fell  and 
extinguished  the  flames;  and  this  incident,  which 
made  the  people  suspect  that  they  had  been  duped 
by  two  impostors,  so  discredited  Savonarola  that  on 
the  following  Sunday  the  Arrabbiati,  under  the  frivo- 
lous pretext  of  a  disturbance  which  had  occurred  in 
another  part  of  the  city,  attacked  the  convent  of  St. 
Mark,  took  it  by  assault,  and  dragged  Savonarola  and 


ILLUSTEIOUS  FLORENTINES.  227 

his  two  followers — Fra  Domenico  and  Fra  Silvestro 
— to  prison. 

When  once  Savonarola  was  arrested  there  was  no 
lack  of  accusations  against  him.  He  had  already 
been  excommunicated,  and  he  was  now  charged  with 
having  preached  without  having  the  Divine  revela- 
tion, and  of  having  attempted  to  assemble  a  council 
for  the  reform  of  the  Church  without  the  authority 
of  the  Pope.  The  General  of  the  Dominican  order 
himself,  Giovacchino  Turriano,  of  Venice,  and  Mon- 
signor  Francesco  RamoUno,  afterwards  Bishop  of 
Sorrento,  were  commissioned  to  represent  the  Porftiff 
before  the  tribunal,  which  was  composed  of  priests 
and  monks.  The  result  of  the  trial  was  a  foregone 
conclusion,  and  Savonarola  and  his  two  associates 
were  sentenced  to  be  hanged  and  burnt  on  the  Piazza 
della  Signoria. 

The  execution  took  place  on  the  23d  of  May,  1498, 
which  was  Ascension  Eve,  and  a  curious  picture  of 
the  sinister  ceremonial  is  still  extant.  A  tribune  more 
than  six  feet  high  had  been  erected  on  the  Piazza, 
where  the  Ammanati  fountain  had  not  yet  been  placed, 
in  front  of  the  ducal  palace,  and  it  was  from  there 
that  the  eight  magistrates  witnessed  the  execution. 
This  tribune  was  connected  with  the  stake  by  a  sort 
of  raised  platform  on  trestles,  and  the  condemned  men 
were  led  up  to  it,  and  had  the  insignia  of  their  order 
stripped  from  them  before  being  led  to  the  stake. 

After  being  hung  they  were  burnt  to  ashes,  and 


228  FLORENCE. 

the  fact  that  they  had  not  uttered  a  word  of  repent- 
ance made  a  great  impression  upon  the  multitude. 
Savonarola  was  executed  last.  When  he  was  brought 
to  the  ladder  he  cast  a  long  gaze  at  the  crowd ;  and 
it  is  said  that  when  his  body  was  cast  in  the  flames 
the  heat  caused  the  right  hand  to  move  so  that  it 
seemed  to  be  raised,  as  if  in  the  act  of  benediction. 

He  was  only  five-and-forty  at  the  time  of  his  death, 
and  he  soon  came  to  be  regarded  as  a  martyr,  even 
by  the  Church ;  so  much  so,  that  when  ten  years  later 
Raphael  was  painting  the  Stanze  at  the  Vatican,  he 
included  among  the  doctors  in  the  "  Dispute  on  the 
Sacrament "  the  man  whom  the  reigning  Pope's  pre- 
decessor had  caused  to  be  burnt  as  a  heretic.  At 
Florence  his  image  was  preserved  as  that  of  a  prophet 
and  a  saint,  and  in  most  pictures  he  is  represented 
with  the  halo  of  glory  around  his  head.  The  most 
trivial  articles  which  had  belonged  to  him  were  re- 
garded as  relics,  and  his  memory  is  so  venerated  that 
at  the  beginning  of  the  present  century,  more  than 
three  hundred  years  after  his  death,  people  came  on 
the  anniversary  of  his  execution  to  deposit  flowers  on 
the  spot  where  the  stake  had  been  erected. 

TH£  CHABACTER   OF  SAVONABOLA.      HIS  T£NDEKCIES.      HIS  IK- 

FLUENCE  UPON  UTEBATUKE  AND  ART.      THE  MEBTINOS 

IN  THE  MONASTERY  OF  SAN  MARCO. 

Such  is  the  true  history  of  Savonarola,  and  it  only 
remains  to  consider  what  were  his  real  tendencies, 
and  what  was  the  end  he  had  in  view.     He  was  one 


ILLUSTRIOUS  FLORENTINES.  229 

of  the  most  remarkable  men  of  his  time,  and  he  has 
left  an  indelible  impression  upon  the  monastery  of 
San  Marco,  which,  though  now  deserted,  preserves 
its  air  of  monastic  repose,  and  which  is  associated 
with  the  name  of  another  famous  monk,  Fra  Angelico. 

While  living  in  the  seclusion  of  his  convent  the 
fame  of  his  sermons  brought  him  many  illustrious 
visitors,  and  he  received  them  in  his  humble  cell,  one 
of  the  first  being  Pico  della  Mirandola,  the  friend  of 
the  Medici,  who  entertained  a  high  feeling  of  admira- 
tion for  the  sturdy  monk.  Then  came  Benivieni ; 
Politian,  so  much  attached  to  the  antiquity  which 
Savonarola  held  in  abhorrence ;  Marco  Finiguerra, 
the  engraver;  Bandini;  the  famous  Sandro  Botticelli; 
Lorenzo  di  Credi;  and  two  of  the  Delia  Robbia 
family  who  had  taken  holy  orders. 

The  favorite  subject  with  Savonarola  was  the 
deleterious  influence  of  paganism,  which  he  ascribed 
to  the  study  of  the  ancient  authors.  His  idea  was 
to  extend  the  influence  of  religion  to  all  human  facul- 
ties and  to  all  their  outcome,  and  as  he  saw  paganism 
gradually  asserting  itself  in  every  branch  of  literature 
and  art,  he  commenced  an  ardent  crusade  against  it. 
The  study  of  the  Bible  was  his  dominant  passion,  and 
he  asserted  that  it  contained  everything  that  was 
necessary  for  the  development  of  humanity.  I  have 
said  above  that  in  his  earUer  commentaries  upon  the 
Apocalypse  he  predicted  in  vague  terms  the  French 
invasion  and  the  disasters  of  Italy,  and  when  this 


230  FLORENCE. 

prediction  was  realized  the  enthusiasm  to  hear  him 
knew  no  bounds,  the  mountaineers  coming  down  from 
the  Apennines  and  sleeping  under  the  walls  of  the 
city,  so  as  to  be  sure  of  getting  places  to  hear  him 
the  next  day.  The  cloister  of  St.  Mark  being  too 
small,  it  was  in  the  Duomo,  which  would  have  ac- 
commodated all  the  population  of  Florence,  that  he 
thundered  forth  against  the  lukewarm  {tie/idi),  and 
endeavored  to  inspire  them  with  his  own  ardent  faith. 
His  eloquence  was  not  without  its  effect,  for  there 
was  a  considerable  change  made  in  the  habits  of  the 
people,  and  a  reaction  set  in  against  the  simonies  and 
loose  discipline  of  the  clergy.  Savonarola  urged  that 
Tibullus,  Ovid,  Catullus,  and  all  the  philosophy  ot 
Aristotle  should  be  proscribed,  and  he  reminded  the 
partisans  of  classic  study  of  the  schisms  which  had 
resulted  in  the  disruption  of  the  Empire  and  the  entry 
of  the  Turks  into  Constantinople.  His  action  was 
not  confined  to  literature,  for  in  poHtics  he  had  con- 
tributed to  the  convocation  of  the  first  Florentine 
parliament,  and  in  regard  to  domestic  reform  his  prin- 
cipal tenets  were,  like  those  of  J.  J.  Rousseau  three 
hundred  years  later,  the  advantages  of  a  natural  edu- 
cation, of  physical  and  moral  education  by  the  father 
and  the  mother,  and  of  mothers  nursing  their  infants 
themselves. 

In  regard  to  art,  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  he  was 
most  successful  in  introducing  a  new  order  of  things. 
Up  to  1480  most  of  the  subjects  treated  by  painters 


ILLUSTKIOUS  FLORENTINES.  231 

were  taken  from  antiquity  or  inspired  by  it,  and  we 
have  only  to  read  contemporary  works  or  examine 
pictures  and  statues  to  see  what  a  large  place  is  held 
by  ancient  fable  and  the  mythology  of  Greece  and  of 
Rome.  Savonarola  reproached  the  Medici  with  hav- 
ing encouraged  this  movement  and  favored  Natural- 
ism, which  is  a  word  one  would  hardly  expect  to  find 
used  in  the  fifteenth  century.  Henceforward  we  find 
Filippo  Lippi,  Botticelli,  Pietro  della  Francesca,  and 
other  painters  representing  the  beautiful  women  of 
the  day  as  Madonnas  and  saints,  and  this  was  im- 
doubtedly  due  in  some  measure  to  the  precepts  of 
Savonarola.  He  denounced  to  the  people  the  orgies 
of  sensualism  which  were  depicted  in  the  frescoes, 
sculptures,  and  other  decorations  of  the  palaces,  pav- 
ing the  way  by  his  seven  years  of  preaching  for  the 
holocausts  in  which  so  many  matchless  works  of  art 
were  devoured. 

The  personal  influence  of  Savonarola  over  certain 
artists  has  been  demonstrated  by  historians  of  the 
time.  Sandro  Botticelli,  for  instance,  was  so  affected 
by  the  repeated  attacks  of  the  Dominican  monk  that 
he  abandoned  painting  for  a  time,  and  shut  himself 
up  in  a  monastery,  though  Lorenzo  de'  Medici  after- 
wards induced  him  to  return  to  his  art.  Lorenzo  di 
Credi,  orthodox  though  he  was  in  his  conceptions  and 
his  works,  was  as  deeply  affected  as  Botticelli,  and 
passed  the  last  years  of  his  life  in  the  convent  of 
Santa  Maria  Novella.     The  great  Fra  Bartolommeo, 


282  FLORENCE. 

who  combined  the  style  of  the  most  Inspired  masters 
with  a  profound  faith,  did  not  touch  a  brush  for  four 
years  after  the  execution  of  Savonarola.  Cronaca, 
the  chronicler  of  the  street  and  the  studio,  who  set 
more  store  by  his  fluent  pen  and  his  eloquence  than 
by  his  artistic  gifts,  could  not  sleep  after  he  had  heard 
several  sermons,  and  was  lost  in  admiration  for  the 
preacher.  Giovanni  della  Comiole,  a  great  cameo 
worker,  spent  a  long  time  upon  the  production  of  a 
splendid  portrait  of  Savonarola,  which  was  placed  in 
the  Medici  collection.  Even  Michael  Angelo,  austere 
and  proud  as  he  was,  felt  in  some  measure  the  great 
reformer's  influence,  for  though  he  was  only  a  child 
when  Savonarola  thundered  forth  his  denunciations 
of  the  modern  Babylon,  they  made  such  an  impres- 
sion upon  him  that  he  could  repeat  extracts  from 
them  years  afterwards. 

A  certain  school  regarded  Savonarola  as  an  icono- 
clast, an  accusation  of  which  Villari  has  endeavored 
to  clear  him,  as  in  his  biography  of  the  Dominican 
monk  he  asserts  that  the  holocausts  which  I  have 
described  were  only  portraits  of  courtesans  and  books 
with  obscene  illustrations,  and,  to  prove  that  he  was 
not  an  enemy  of  letters,  points  out  that  he  asked  the 
Chapter  of  San  Marco  for  permission  to  purchase  the 
library  of  Lorenzo  de'  Medici,  which  was  eventually 
known  as  the  Laurentiana.  Be  this  as  it  may,  Savon- 
arola, by  prohibiting  the  study  of  the  nude,  which  is 
the  ever-fresh  source  of  the  beautiftd  in  art,  and  by 


ILLUSTRIOUS  FLOEENTINES.  233 

maintaining  the  principle  of  Christian  as  opposed  to 
pagan  art,  brought  about  a  complete  revolution,  and 
put  an  end  to  the  strange  combats  of  Pollaiuolo,  to 
the  compositions  taken  from  the  Latin  and  Greek 
authors,  to  the  strange  allegories  of  Botticelli  and 
Benozzo  Gozzoli,  and  to  the  beautiful  groups  of 
statuary  which  one  might  suppose  to  be  extracted 
from  the  quarries  of  Paros,  and  wrought  by  the 
pupils  of  Praxiteles. 

It  will  readily  be  understood  that  this  fanaticism, 
excellent  as  were  the  motives  which  gave  rise  to  it, 
called  forth  the  hostility  of  the  Court  of  Rome,  whose 
power  it  tended  to  undermine.  The  sack  of  San 
Marco  was  the  first  tangible  act  of  hostility  on  the 
part  of  the  Arrahhiati  against  the  Piagnoni,  as  the  fol- 
lowers of  Savonarola  were  called,  and  that  must  have 
been  a  memorable  scene  when  the  Dominicans,  suc- 
cumbing under  superior  forces,  were  overwhelmed 
by  their  assailants  in  the  church  which  was  red  with 
blood,  and  marched  to  their  doom  singing  and  prais- 
ing God.  One  cannot  visit  that  now  peaceful  retreat, 
which  the  recollection  of  Savonarola,  Fra  Domenico, 
and  Fra  Angelico  renders  so  famous,  without  being 
reminded  of  all  this  ;  and  the  ceU  of  Savonarola,  in 
which  are  preserved  the  portraits  of  Cosimo  the  Elder, 
of  Benivieni,  and  of  Savonarola  himself,  the  manu- 
scripts, the  chair,  the  furniture,  and  the  sacerdotal 
ornaments  of  the  great  monk,  is  assuredly  one  of  the 
most  interesting  historical  spots  in  Florence.     In  it  we 


284  FLORENCK 

have,  80  to  speak,  the  records  of  history  proved  by 
facts,  but  for  which  they  might  be  regarded  as  mere 
legends. 

From  this  time  forth  religious  subjects  were  invari- 
ably selected  for  painting  and  sculpture,  and  through- 
out Italy  artists  were  at  work  upon  portraits  of  Christ, 
the  Virgin,  the  angels  and  prophets,  and  upon  Bible 
scenes,  ujitil  such  men  of  genius  as  Titian  and  Gior- 
gione  discarded  this  conventional  rule,  and  selected 
their  subjects  from  the  Greek  mythology  or  the 
domain  of  pure  fancy.  Nowhere  was  the  influence 
of  Savonarola  more  profoundly  felt  than  in  the  fine- 
arts,  as  his  utterances  had  made  a  deeper  impression, 
upon  artists  than  upon  any  other  class. 

THE  BENIVIENL 

(1453-1542.) 

Jerome  Benivieni,  though  the  youngest,  was  the 
most  celebrated  of  the  family,  all  the  members  of 
which  were  admitted  to  the  intimacy  of  Lorenzo  the 
Magnificent,  and,  as  members  of  his  Academy,  were 
the  friends  and  colleagues  of  Ficino,  Politian,  and  Pico 
della  Mirandola.  Domenico,  the  eldest  of  the  brothers, 
though  gifted  with  great  knowledge  as  a  philosopher, 
was  above  all  things  a  theologian,  so  much  so  that  he 
was  sumamed  "  H  Scotino,"  or  the  little  Scot,  after 
the  gifted  Michael  Scotus  of  Great  Britain.  Professor 
of  Dialectics  in  the  University  of  Pisa,  and  after- 
wards Director  of  the  hospital  of  Pescia,  he  was  ap- 


&\ontno^£2.  omB^otn)  et*1 


ii«>}B«m 


>ootino/'  or  the 
Fra.  Girolamo  Sdl?onarola 


jm/^wm^M^mmmmM 


l-llKRONYtAI'l'EP.RAR 
*MISS^PRO!\ 


ILLUSTRIOUS  FLORENTINES.  235 

pointed  by  Lorenzo  a  canon  of  the  basilica  of  San 
Lorenzo,  and  he  always  remained  a  fast  friend  of 
Savonarola. 

Antony,  the  second  brother,  was  both  a  man  of 
letters  and  a  doctor,  as  was  often  the  case  in  the 
fifteenth  and  sixteenth  centuries,  notably  with  the 
brothers  Ficino.  He  has  left  some  technical  works 
behind  him,  including  a  curious  treatise  on  medicine, 
and  his  name  disappears  at  the  beginning  of  the  six- 
teenth century. 

Jerome,  the  youngest  of  the  three  brothers,  was 
born  about  1453,  and  wrote  a  good  deal  of  poetry, 
belonging  to  the  Academy  of  Plato,  and  publishing 
verses  on  "  Platonic  Love  "  in  Italian.  An  intimate 
friend  of  all  the  most  gifted  men  of  his  time,  he  was 
the  inseparable  companion  of  Pico  della  Mirandola, 
who  showed  his  confidence  in  Jerome  by  making  him 
his  almoner  for  the  distribution  of  the  moneys  which 
he  gave  to  the  poor,  and  of  the  dowries  for  young  girls 
who  were  reported  to  be  worthy  of  this  favor. 

Pico  has  written  a  commentary  on  Jerome  Beni- 
vieni  as  a  preface  to  his  "  Love  Sonnets,"  and  he  was 
so  attached  to  him  in  life  that  he  would  not  be  sepa- 
rated from  him  in  death,  and  was  buried  in  the  same 
tomb  at  San  Marco. 

Like  his  brother  Domenico,  he  was  a  firm  believer 
in  Savonarola,  and  besides  the  defence  which  he 
wrote  of  the  monk,  he  translated  his  works  from 
Latin  into  the  vulgar  tongue. 


286  FLORENCK 

ANGELO  POLITIAN. 

(1454-1494.) 

Politian,  whose  name  is  synonymous  with  deep 
learning,  and  who  exercised  a  considerable  influence 
over  his  generation,  was  bom  on  the  14th  of  July, 
1454,  at  Monte  Pulciano,  a  small  town  in  Tuscany 
celebrated  for  its  excellent  wine.  His  proper  name, 
as  would  appear  from  a  degree  of  doctor,  the  certifi- 
cate of  which  is  still  preserved  at  Florence,  was 
Ambrogini,  the  name  by  which  he  is  familiarly  known 
being  derived  from  his  place  of  birth. 

Cristoforo  Landino  taught  him  Latin,  and  Androni- 
cus,  of  Thessalonica,  Greek ;  in  philosophy  he  was 
the  most  brilliant  of  Marcilio  Ficino's  pupils,  and  as 
he  was  anxious  to  master  the  doctrines  of  Aristotle 
as  opposed  to  those  of  Plato,  he  studied  his  writings 
under  Argyropulos.  His  earliest  work  was  a  transla- 
tion of  Homer  into  Latin  verse ;  but  this  did  not 
bring  him  into  any  great  notice,  and  the  first  success 
which  he  obtained  was  by  writing  some  Stame  for 
the  tournament  got  up  by  Giuliano  de'  Medici.  It  is 
scarcely  credible  that  he  should  have  written  these 
verses,  which  were  soon  on  everybody's  lips,  at  the 
age  of  fourteen  or  fifteen,  and  it  has  been  argued 
that  the  toiumament  was  held  not  in  1468,  but  in 
1473. 

The  death  of  Giuliano  was  a  great  blow  for  Politian, 
who  wrote  in  Latin  an  accoimt  of  the  Pazzi  conspir- 


ILLUSTKIOUS  FLORENTINES.  237 

acy ;  but  Lorenzo  intrusted  to  him  the  education  of 
his  two  sons,  Pietro  and  Giovanni,  the  latter  of  whom 
became  Pope,  under  the  title  of  Leo  X. 

When  nine-and-twenty  years  of  age,  at  a  time 
when  Florence  was  a  centre  of  study  for  all  Italy, 
Politian  was  called  to  the  chair  of  Latin  and  Greek 
literature,  and  his  lectures  were  thronged,  for  he  was 
as  eloquent  as  he  was  learned.  As  Lorenzo  had  sent 
him  to  Rome  in  charge  of  his  son  Pietro,  who  was 
received  with  great  pomp  by  Innocent  VIII.,  that 
pontiff  requested  Politian  to  translate  Herodianus 
into  Latin,  and  recompensed  him  with  a  gift  of  two 
hundred  gold  crowns.  PoHtian,  however,  was  above 
taking  this  present,  for  he  had  a  private  fortune  of 
his  own,  and  had  been  given  a  priory  and  a  canonry 
in  the  metropolitan  church  of  Florence,  besides  which, 
he  lived  at  the  expense  of  Lorenzo.  He  had  formed 
a  close  intimacy  with  Pico  deUa  Mirandola,  who  had 
renounced  his  social  position  in  order  to  devote  his 
whole  time  to  literature ;  and  these  two  friends,  to- 
gether with  Giovanni  Lascaris  and  a  few  others, 
formed  themselves  into  a  select  literary  group.  Lo- 
renzo placed  the  celebrated  Laurentiana  library  at 
their  disposal ;  and  it  was  from  this  period  that  dates 
the  publication  of  the  MisceUanece,  in  which  ancient 
literature  received  so  high  a  meed  of  praise. 

The  teaching  of  Politian  acquired  so  much  celeb- 
rity that  students  from  all  parts  of  the  world  came  to 
take  lessons  from  him  j  two  or  three  of  them  after- 


238  FLORENCE. 

wards  became  professors  in  the  Universities  of  Ox- 
ford and  Oporto,  and  by  the  influence  of  John  Tex- 
eira,  Chancellor  of  the  kingdom  of  Portugal,  he  was 
appointed  historiographist  to  King  John  II.,  and  in- 
structed to  write  the  annals  of  Portuguese  conquest 
in  the  colonies.  It  was  while  preparing  this  great 
work  that  he  died,  before  reaching  the  age  of  forty. 

The  most  infamous  calumnies  were  propagated  as 
to  the  cause  of  his  death,  and  a  writer  of  some  weight, 
Paolo  Giovio,  has  not  scrupled  to  adopt  them  as  true. 
Other  writers  have  reproduced  his  statements,  but  it 
is  more  pleasant  to  believe  the  assertions  of  those 
who  attribute  his  premature  death  to  grief  at  the 
death  of  his  patron,  Lorenzo,  and  the  disasters  which 
overtook  his  family.  Pietro  de'  Medici,  his  pupil,  had 
been  driven  from  Florence,  and  the  fortunes  of  the 
Medici  were  trembling  to  their  base,  when  the  poet 
took  up  his  lyre  to  sing  the  plaintive  melody  "  Mono- 
dia  in  Laurentium  Medicii,"  in  which  he  poured  out 
his  own  grief  and  extolled  the  virtues  of  his  lost  pro- 
tector. Bembo  has  cleared  him  of  the  calumnies  to 
which  Paolo  Giovio  gave  currency,  and  Dandolo,  who 
has  already  been  referred  to  as  the  author  of  "  Flor- 
ence Down  to  the  Fall  of  the  Republic,"  has  contrib- 
uted to  the  same  end  by  the  discovery  of  a  document 
written  by  the  Dominican  monk  Ubaldino,  who  was 
charged  by  Savonarola  to  conduct  his  funeral  in  the 
convent  of  San  Marco,  where  he  had  so  often  dis- 
coursed.    In  this  document,  which  is  entitled  "  Ru- 


ILLUSTRIOUS  FLORENTINES.  239 

bertus  Ubaldinus  de  Galliano  Dominicanse  familise 
monachus,  de  obitu  et  sepultura  domini  Angeli  Poli- 
tiani,"  it  is  said  that  Politian  died  lilce  a  good  Chris- 
tian, and  there  is  an  allusion  to  the  grief  which  he 
felt  at  the  decease  of  Lorenzo  and  Pico  della  Miran- 
■  dola.  The  fierce  disputes  between  the  writers  of  that 
day  go  far  to  explain  these  cruel  insinuations,  as  has 
already  been  seen  in  the  case  of  Filelfo  and  Poggio. 
Politian's  bitterest  enemy  was  one  Giorgio  Morula,  of 
Alexandria,  a  professor  at  the  University  of  Milan. 
When  the  Miscellanece  were  published  Morula  found 
that  they  contained  several  ideas  of  his  own,  and 
opinions  contrary  to  his  as  well,  and  he  accordingly 
wrote  a  strong  pamphlet,  which,  though  not  printed, 
was  distributed  throughout  Florence.  To  this  Poli- 
iian  replied  with  another  pamphlet,  in  which  he  spoke 
of  his  adversary,  under  the  pseudonym  of  Mabilius, 
in  very  cutting  terms.  The  feud,  however,  was  ulti- 
mately healed,  and  Morula  became  a  warm  friend  of 
Politian  before  his  death. 

The  influence  of  PoUtian  upon  his  contemporaries 
was  very  great,  his  chief  speciality,  despite  the  halo 
of  poesy  which  the  pubUcation  of  the  Stanse  had  cast 
around  him,  being  his  intimate  knowledge  of  the 
Latin  and  Greek  authors.  He  wrote  very  little  in  the 
vulgar  tongue,  and  with  the  exception  of  the  Stanse^ 
the  only  known  works  by  him  in  Italian  are  a  Can- 
zone, which  is  transcribed  in  Crescimbeni's  History 
of  Literature,  and  a  beautiful  poem  called  "  Orfeo." 


240  FLOKE^'CE. 

He  was  without  a  rival  in  Greek,  and  wrote  com- 
mentaries on  most  of  the  classic  authors,  his  other 
works  comprising  Elegies,  Epigrams,  Miscellanies,  a 
version  of  Herodianus,  a  eulogy  of  Homer,  and  twelve 
letters  containing  some  valuable  information  about 
the  literary  history  of  the  last  half  of  the  fifteenth 
century.  He  made  a  careful  collation  of  most  of  the 
ancient  manuscripts  in  the  Laurentiana,  and  prepared 
the  "  Greek  Paraphrase  "  of  the  "  Institutes  "  of  Jus- 
tinian I  the  celebrated  "  Pandects  "  manuscript,  which 
is  preserved  at  Florence,  furnishing  him  with  much 
valuable  information.  Although  a  canon  of  the 
Church,  he  did  not  concern  himself  much  about 
theology,  and  he  is  regarded  as  the  real  founder  of 
the  Italian  Theatre,  as  he  was  the  first  to  write  dia- 
logue for  his  characters.  The  works  of  Politian  were 
first  published  by  Aldo  in  1498,  and  the  best  Ufe  of 
him  is  the  biography  published  at  Bergamo  in  1747 
by  Sarassi,  as  a  preface  to  his  edition  of  the  StanzCj 
though  another  good  biography  was  pubUshed  at 
Leipsic  in  1736  by  Mencken.  Erasmus  proclaimed 
him  to  be  "  a  miracle  of  nature,"  but  the  miracle  was 
so  calumniated  by  the  author  of  "  Plorentine  Anec- 
dotes," and  by  Vossius,  on  the  faith  of  Paolo  Giovio, 
that  we  have  to  fall  back  upon  original  documents, 
and  upon  the  letters  of  Lorenzo  the  Magnificent,  and 
of  other  contemporaries,  to  clear  his  memory.  The 
evidence  of  Abbe  Mehus,  in  his  "  Preface  to  the  Life 
of  Ambrose  Camaldoli,"  alone  sufiices  to  show  that 


ILLUSTRIOUS  FLORENTINES.  241 

Politiandied  a  nobler  death  than  his  detractors  averred. 
He  says,  "  Messire  Angelo  Politian,  attacked  by  a 
violent  fever,  died  after  an  illness  of  fourteen  days, 
and,  unfortunate  even  after  death,  malevolence  would 
have  it  that  he  expired  in  a  delirium  caused  by  his 
passions.  It  is  hard  to  believe  that  one  so  versed  in 
Greek  and  Latin,  in  history,  in  antiquity,  in  dialectics, 
and  in  philosophy,  had  not  more  command  over  him- 
self. It  should  be  added  that  Pietro  de'  Medici,  his 
pupil,  had  opened  negotiations  with  the  Pope  for 
making  him  a  cardinal  just  at  the  time  that  he  was 
banished,  that  the  death  of  Lorenzo  was  a  great  blow 
to  him,  and  that  he  was  involved  in  the  same  hostility 
which  led  to  the  expulsion  of  Pietro." 

PICO  DELLA  MIRANDOLA. 

(1463-1494.) 

Whenever  an  illustration  of  youthftJ  precocity  was 
sought  by  any  writer  at  the  close  of  the  fifteenth  cen- 
tury, the  name  of  Pico  della  Mirandola,  the  young 
noble  who  abandoned  his  social  position  to  devote 
himself  to  study,  and  who  on  one  occasion  offered  to 
carry  on  a  discussion  upon  every  branch  of  human 
knowledge,  at  once  occurred  to  him,  and  this  name 
has  become  renowned,  not  only  in  Italy,  but  through- 
out Europe. 

Giovanni  Pico  della  Mirandola  was  the  third  son  of 
Giovanni  Francesco,  signor  of  Mirandola  and  Concor- 
dia.    His  mother  was  almost  as  famous  as  he  was, 

16 


242  FLORENCE. 

and  one  of  the  greatest  artists  of  the  day  represents, 
in  a  well-known  work,  young  Giovanni  in  his  mother^s 
arms,  as  if  to  typify  her  tender  care  for  an  infant  who 
gave  so  much  promise,  even  from  his  cradle,  of  the 
knowledge  which  was  to  make  him  one  of  the  won- 
ders of  his  age.  When  only  ten  years  old  he  made  a 
speech  in  public,  and  read  some  of  his  own  poetry. 
When  he  had  mastered  with  surprising  facility  the 
instruction  given  him  at  home,  he  was  sent  to  Bologna, 
where  he  studied  philosophy  and  theology.  Wealthy 
and  independent,  he  determined  to  visit  all  the  great- 
est universities  in  Europe,  and  instead  of  listening  to 
the  lectures  of  the  most  eminent  professors,  he  was 
able  to  embarrass  them  by  his  questions,  and  argue 
successfully  with  them. 

Unfortunately  for  his  fame,  the  study  of  the  Syrian, 
the  Arabian,  and  the  Chaldean  languages  led  him  to 
indulge  in  vague  and  speculative  views,  and  in  the 
unprofitable  examination  of  the  Cabala.  He  had 
formed  a  library  of  the  Cabala,  the  catalogue  of  which, 
published  by  Gaffarel,  is  still  extant. 

He  was  not  one  of  those  modest  scholars  who  love 
science  for  its  own  sake,  and  Nature,  while  lavishing 
her  gifts  upon  him,  had  endowied  him  with  a  feeling 
of  pride  which  impelled  him  to  air  those  gifts  before 
the  world.  Thus  it  was  that  in  1468  Pico  della  Mi- 
randola,  then  in  the  plenitude  of  his  faculties,  arrived 
at  the  Court  of  Innocent  VHI.  with  a  list  of  nine  hun- 
dred propositions,  "  De  onmi  re  scibili/'  which  he  un- 


ILLUSTKIOUS  FLORENTINES.  243 

dertook  to  sustain  in  public  debate  against  all  the 
savants  who  chose  to  enter  the  field.  As  he  was  very 
wealthy  he  further  declared  his  willingness  to  defray 
the  expenses  of  all  those  who  would  make  the  journey. 
The  list  of  propositions  has  been  preserved,  and  it 
has  been  well  remarked  that  the  learning  of  any  one 
who  answered  them  all  would  not  amount  to  very 
much. 

The  immediate  result  of  this  challenge  was  to  raise 
up  enemies  for  him  among  those  whom  he  attempted 
to  outshine,  and  thirteen  of  his  propositions  were  de- 
nounced as  being  tainted  with  heresy.  He,  of  course, 
had  his  answer  ready,  and  his  first  argument  was  to 
prove  that  these  very  propositions  had  been  sanc- 
tioned by  theologians  whose  orthodoxy  was  unim- 
peachable. He  turned  the  laugh  against  his  accusers, 
who  had  made  the  blunder  of  representing  the  Cabala 
as  a  man  who  had  spoken  evil  of  Jesus  Christ.  In- 
nocent VHI.,  however,  condemned  the  propositions, 
and  Pico  left  Rome  for  France,  where  he  was  held  in 
great  esteem.  He  was  again  denounced  during  his  ab- 
sence, and  the  Pope  summoned  him  to  appear  before 
his  tribunal ;  but  though  he  did  so,  and  had  no  diffi- 
culty in  clearing  himself,  the  mortification  for  him 
was  very  great. 

This  was  the  close  of  his  public  career,  and  having 
abandoned  his  titles  and  property  in  favor  of  his 
nephews,  he  lived  in  the  intimacy  of  learned  men  at 
the  Court  of  his  friend  Lorenzo  the  Magnificent,  being 


244  FLORENCK 

very  regular  in  his  attendance  at  the  Academy  of 
Plato,  where  Marcilio  Ficino  and  Politian  bore  him 
company.  He  died  in  the  prime  of  youth,  at  the  age 
of  thirty-one,  having  been  preceded  to  the  tomb  only 
two  months  before  by  Politian.  Charles  VIH.  entered 
Florence  on  the  very  day  of  his  death,  and  the  French 
King,  who  had  received  him  at  the  Court  of  Paris, 
hearing  of  his  serious  illness,  sent  two  of  his  physicians 
to  him,  but  he  had  breathed  his  last  before  they  could 
arrive.  He  died  in  the  true  faith  of  a  Christian,  be- 
queathing all  his  fortune  to  his  servitors  and  to  the 
poor  of  Florence. 

His  works  comprised  a  poem  upon  the  creation  of 
the  universe,  in  which  he  attempts  to  conciliate  the 
Bible  with  the  doctrines  of  Plato — a  favorite  theme 
in  the  fifteenth  century ;  a  scholastic  treatise  entitled 
"  De  Ente  et  Uno,"  eight  volumes  of  "  Letters,"  a 
commentary  upon  "  Platonic  Love,"  a  harangue  upon 
"  The  Dignity  of  Man,"  several  pieces  of  poetry,  and 
twelve  books  denoimcing  judicial  astrology,  the  last 
named  being  looked  upon  as  the  most  important  of 
his  many  compositions.  The  only  work  of  his  in  the 
vidgar  tongue  was  his  conmientary  of  his  friend 
Benivieni's  "  Platonic  Love." 

Pico  della  IVIirandola,  prodigy  of  learning  as  he  was, 
and  one  of  the  most  popular  men  of  his  age,  did  not 
as  a  writer  make  any  great  contribution  to  the  sum 
of  human  knowledge,  and  his  science  was  Platonic, 
and  professed  with  a  view  to  effect. 


ILLUSTEIOUS  FLORENTINES.  245 

MACHIAVELLI. 
(1469-1527.) 

Niccol6  Machiavelli  was  born  at  Florence  in  May, 
1469,  his  father,  who  was  a  judge,  being  called  Ber- 
nardo, while  the  name  of  his  mother  was  Bartolomea 
di  Stefano  Nelli.  It  was  believed  at  one  time  that  he 
was  descended  from  a  noble  family  which  had  given 
several  marquises  to  Tuscany ;  but  the  truth  is  that 
his  father,  though  well  bom  and  moderately  rich,  was 
not  of  noble  descent.  He  was  a  native  of  Val  di  Pisa, 
and  his  property  was  at  Montespertoli.  These  facts 
concerning  the  great  political  writer  who  has  acquired 
a  proverbial  reputation  for  astuteness  and  perfidy  are 
derived  from  Passerini  and  Pietro  Fanfani. 

It  may  be  assumed  that  Machiavelli  made  a  pro- 
found study  of  Latin  and  the  Italian  classics.  At  the 
age  of  five-and-twenty  he  was  employed  in  the 
Government  office  which  conducted  the  business  relat- 
ing to  embassies  and  war,  while  four  years  later — in 
1498 — a  decree  of  the  Grand  Council  raised  him  to 
the  rank  of  Second  Chancellor.  He  had  scarcely 
entered  upon  these  new  duties  than  he  was  promoted 
to  be  Secretary  to  the  Council  of  Ten,  and  so  able 
was  his  conduct  of  affairs  that  he  held  the  post  for 
fifteen  years,  though  the  ordinary  tenure  was  only  for 
a  month. 

In  1499  he  undertook  the  first  of  a  series  of  em- 
bassies, and  in  the  hands  of  the  Government  of  Flor- 


246  FLORENCK 

ence  appeared  to  be  a  docile  and  supple  instrument. 
But  while  Machiavelli  seemed  to  be  only  expressing 
the  views  of  those  by  whom  he  was  commissioned, 
he  had  been  skilful  enough  to  dictate  the  resolutions 
of  those  who  sent  him.  The  first  important  mission 
which  he  undertook  was  to  King  Louis  XII.  of  France 
in  1500.  In  the  following  year  he  returned  to  fill  his 
duties  as  Second  Chancellor,  though  not  for  long  at  a 
time,  as  we  find  him  first  at  Pistoia,  then  at  Pisa, 
then  at  Siena,  and  then  at  Arezzo.  In  1502  he  ac- 
companied Caesar  Borgia  to  Imola,  and  then  through- 
out the  Romagna  and  Umbria,  when  that  Prince  was 
engaged  in  reducing  the  rebel  lords,  Vitellozzo  Vitelli, 
Oliveretto  da  Fermo,  Pagolo,  and  the  Duke  de  Gra- 
vina  Orsini.  It  was  during  these  different  embassies, 
more  military  than  diplomatic,  that  Machiavelli,  con- 
stantly engaged  in  sieges,  assaults,  fortifications,  and 
battles,  directed  his  brilliant  faculties  to  the  study  of 
war  and  the  practical  side  of  a  military  profession. 

But  a  higher  mission  awaited  him,  and  the  soldier 
was  soon  merged  in  the  diplomatist.  At  the  death  of 
Alexander  VI.,  Florence  took  a  deep  interest  in  the 
election  of  a  new  pope,  and  was  very  anxious  to  im- 
pose her  candidate  upon  the  Sacred  College.  Car- 
dinal Francesco  Soderini  was  sent  from  Volterra  to 
Rome,  Machiavelli  accompanying  him  as  far  as  Val  di 
Amo,  and  then  proceeding  on  his  own  accoimt  to  the 
conclave,  in  which  he  played  a  very  important  part. 

In  1505  he  was  intrusted  with  the  realization  of 


ILLUSTRIOUS  FLORENTINES.  247 

an  idea  which  he  had  long  been  advocating,  and 
which  was  destined  to  bring  about  a  complete  revolu- 
tion in  the  constitution  of  Italian  States.  His  plan 
was  to  substitute  for  the  mercenary  forces,  upon  the 
fidelity  of  which  little  reliance  could  be  placed,  and 
which,  animated  by  no  patriotic  sentiments,  often 
turned  tail  and  fled,  a  national  army  composed  solely 
of  citizens. 

In  1503,  at  a  meeting  of  the  Council,  he  urged  the 
people  to  form  an  army,  and  contributed  to  the  ex- 
penses of  their  equipment,  and  in  1506  he  proposed 
the  creation  of  a  special  magistracy,  which  was  to 
form  companies  of  soldiers,  superintend  their  drilling 
and  instruction,  and  take  care  that  they  were  ready 
to  march  at  immediate  notice.  This  was  his  greatest 
work,  and  he  was  the  moving  spirit  in  the  new  mag- 
istracy, obtaining  from  the  Council  of  Ten  their  sanc- 
tion to  the  measures  which  he  deemed  necessary, 
and  never  relaxing  in  his  efforts  until  he  felt  that  the 
change  had  taken  firm  root.  Mercenary  armies  were 
suppressed  for  good,  and  to  Machiavelli  is  due  the 
credit  of  substituting  for  them  those  national  forces 
which  are  still  the  ultima  ratio  of  civilized  societies. 
The  superiority  of  infantry  over  cavalry  was  another 
favorite  theory  of  Machiavelli,  whose  views  in  regard 
to  warfare  have  been  embodied  by  Algarotti  in  a 
work  entitled  "  The  Military  Science  of  the  Floren- 
tine Secretary,"  and  dedicated  to  Prince  Henry  of 
Prussia. 


248  FLORENCE. 

In  1506,  while  still  busily  engaged  in  his  work  of 
military  organization,  he  was  obliged  to  return  to 
Rome  and  accompany  Julius  11.  to  Imola  when  the 
latter  was  attempting  to  subjugate  Bologna.  In 
1507  he  went  to  supervise  the  recruiting  of  foot- 
soldiers  at  Val  di  Tevere,  Valdichiana,  Chianti,  and 
the  valleys  of  the  Elsa  and  the  Cecina,  and  in  the 
course  of  the  same  year  he  was  sent  as  a  delegate  to 
Piombino  and  Siena. 

At  the  end  of  1507  he  was  sent  to  meet  the  Em- 
peror Maximilian,  who  was  about  to  enter  Italy  on 
his  way  to  receive  the  imperial  crown  from  the 
Pontiff,  and  as  Florence  had  to  provide  a  subsidy, 
Machiavelli  was  sent  to  settle  the  matter.  He  was 
six  months  on  this  mission,  and  he  found  time  to 
write  the  "  Ritratti  delle  cose  d'Alemagna,"  the 
^'Rapporto  delle  cose  della  Magna,"  and  the  "Discorso 
sopra  I'Imperatore."  There  is  no  need  to  enimierate 
all  the  diplomatic  missions  upon  which  he  was  em- 
ployed, for  rarely  has  a  public  man  been  so  constantly 
occupied,  but  amidst  all  this  he  seemed  to  be  more 
specially  engrossed  by  military  affairs,  and  may, 
indeed,  be  regarded  as  the  War  Minister  of  the  Re- 
public, with  all  the  practical  knowledge  and  more 
than  the  deliberative  ability  of  a  great  commander. 
The  long  and  arduous  struggle  with  Pisa  gave  him 
an  opportimity  of  displaying  his  talents,  and  it  may 
be  said  that  the  measures  adopted  to  capture  the  city 
were  suggested  by  him. 


ILLUSTEIOUS  FLORENTINES.  249 

These  almost  permanent  duties  did  not  prevent 
him  from  rendering  still  greater  services,  and  the 
post  of  Ambassador  to  the  Court  of  France  being 
vacant,  he  filled  it  for  a  short  time  in  1510,  taking 
up  his  residence  first  at  Lyons,  and  afterwards  at 
Blois  and  Tours. 

The  fall  of  the  Gonfaloniere  Soderini  which  took 
place  upon  the  30th  of  August  1512,  during  his  ab- 
sence, was  very  prejudicial  to  him,  for  after  the  change 
of  Government  which  followed  he  was  deprived  of  his 
post  both  as  Chancellor  and  Secretary  of  the  Ten. 
A  decree  was  even  passed  ordering  him  not  to  leave 
the  place  of  residence  assigned  to  him,  and  he  was 
forbidden  to  attend  the  Signoria  for  a  twelvemonth. 
Mixed  up  in  a  conspiracy  against  the  Medici  in  1513, 
he  was  imprisoned  in  the  BargeUo,  and  even  put  to 
the  question,  but  Leo  X.,  delighted  at  his  election 
to  the  throne  of  St.  Peter,  had  him  set  at  liberty. 
There  can  be  no  doubt  that  he  was  tortured,  but  he 
met  his  punishment  with  the  stoic  courage  of  the  men 
of  old,  and  left  behind  him  a  curious  sonnet  written 
at  the  very  time. 

While  his  body  was  still  crushed  and  bruised,  he 
repaired  to  his  humble  villa  near  San  Casciano,  and 
there  devoted  himself  to  study,  leading  a  peasant's 
life,  playing  bowls  and  backgammon  with  his  neigh- 
bors, and  showing  great  aflfability  in  his  relations 
with  them.  His  pohtical  career  seemed  to  be  over, 
and  he  worked  very  hard,  writing  for  the  Academy 


250  FLORENCR 

of  the  Ruccellai  Gardens,  the  "Principe"  (1513), 
"  Discourses  on  the  First  Book  of  Livy "  (1516- 
1519),  the  "  Dialogue  upon  Language,"  and  the 
"Seven  Books  of  the  Art  of  War"  (1520).  The  "Life 
of  Castruccio  "  was  written  at  Lucca  about  the  end 
of  the  same  year.  Under  the  princedom  of  the 
Medici  he  again  returned  into  favor,  but  though  he 
was  employed  upon  several  diplomatic  missions  he 
did  not  hold  any  permanent  post,  and  it  was  imder 
these  circimistances  that  he  came  to  write  the  "  Storie 
Florentine,"  and  the  two  comedies,  Mandra^ola  and 
CUzia,  which  were  composed  for  representation  before 
Leo  X.  Andrea  del  Sarto  and  Aristotle  de  San  Gallo 
undertook  the  scenic  arrangements,  and  the  audience 
comprised  cardinals  and  other  dignitaries  of  the  Vati- 
can. Francesco  Guicciardini,  the  great  historian  and 
the  Governor  of  the  Romagna,  had  these  comedies 
represented  at  Bologna  during  the  carnival  of  1526, 
and  the  Venetians  also  were  anxious  to  witness  the 
performance  of  them. 

Pope  Clement  VH.,  in  1526,  called  him  back  to 
activity  by  intrusting  him  with  the  inspection  of  the 
fortifications  of  Florence,  the  Pontiff  foreseeing  the 
possibility  of  the  city  having  to  sustain  a  siege  ;  and 
Machiavelli  having,  with  a  number  of  military  engi- 
neers, taken  counsel  as  to  the  best  measures  to  be 
adopted,  made  his  report  to  the  Pope. 

The  whole  of  that  year  was  spent  by  him  in  nego- 
tiations with   Guicciardini   and  the  proveditore  of 


ILLUSTRIOUS  FLORENTINES.  251 

Venice  at  Cremona.  He  thus  escaped  the  tumult 
caused  by  the  conspiracy  of  the  26th  of  April,  and 
went  upon  Guicciardini's  behalf  to  Doria  and  Genoa 
in  quest  of  a  galley  and  some  reinforcements.  From 
Genoa  he  went  to  Leghorn,  in  the  company  of 
the  Marchioness  of  Mantua,  and  he  died  at  Florence 
on  the  23d  of  June,  1527. 

A  letter  from  his  son  proves  that  Machiavelli  died 
a  poor  man,  and  no  wonder  that  he  did,  for  his  life 
was  full  of  vicissitudes.  While  holding  office,  he 
spent  his  salary  freely,  and  when  he  fell  from  power 
he  did  nothing  to  increase  his  fortune.  In  whatever 
light  he  is  looked  at,  he  is  a  genius,  though  a  French 
writer  has  written  a  phrase  which  the  Italians  take 
in  very  bad  part :  "  The  misfortimes  of  Italy  arose 
solely  from  the  fact  that  she  was  capable  of  producing 
the  Principe."  There  can  be  no  doubt  but  that  Machia- 
velli inculcated  the  odious  maxim  as  to  the  end  justi- 
fying the  means,  but  it  is  equally  certain  that  with 
him  it  was  dictated  by  conviction  rather  than  by  per- 
versity. He  was  a  great  patriot  beyond  all  question,  to 
say  nothing  of  his  being  an  incomparable  artist  and  a 
gifted  writer  who  has  the  true  historical  sense,  and  who 
has  left  political  portraits  which  a  Tacitus  would  not 
disown. 

FRANCESCO  GUICCIARDINL 
(1483-1540.) 

Francesco  Guicciardini  is  the  classic  historian  of 
Florence  during  the  Medici  age,  and  whatever  may 


252  FLORENCK 

be  thought  of  his  work,  as  a  well-informed  contem- 
porary and  a  writer  of  calm  and  moderate  judgment 
he  occupies  a  prominent  place  among  the  Florentine 
celebrities  of  his  time. 

He  was  bom  in  Florence  on  March  6,  1483,  his 
parents  being  Piero  and  Simona  Gianfigliazzi,  and  he 
came  of  a  noble  and  illustrious  family.  Marcilio 
Ficino  stood  sponsor  for  him,  and  after  a  studious 
career  as  a  boy,  he  was  sent  by  his  father,  at  the  age 
of  twenty,  to  Ferrara,  in  order  that  he  might  be  kept 
out  of  the  political  quarrels  which  were  constantly 
occurring  in  his  native  town.  From  the  University 
of  Ferrara  he  went  to  that  of  Padua,  and  after  study- 
ing law  there  he  returned  to  Florence,  and  was  ap- 
pointed in  October,  1505,  to  a  professorship.  He 
did  not  devote  his  whole  time  to  the  law,  in  which  he 
soon  acquired  no  little  celebrity,  though  he  made  a 
brilliant  debut  at  the  bar  and  secured  plenty  of  prac- 
tice. It  was  upon  the  14th  of  January,  1507,  that 
he  was  affianced  to  Maria  di  Alamanno  Salviati. 
His  influence  was  so  great  that  in  the  course  of  this 
same  year  the  corporation  of  merchants  appointed 
him  consul,  but  he  could  not  accept  the  post,  as  the 
law  required  that  the  holder  of  it  must  be  thirty 
years  of  age.  Henceforward,  corporations,  societies, 
charities,  and  religious  communities  sought  his  advice, 
but  an  unexpected  event  suddenly  caused  him  to 
transfer  his  attention  from  civil  to  political  affairs. 

This  occurred  during  the  Holy  Alliance  between 


ILLUSTRIOUS  FLORENTINES.  253 

the  Pope,  the  King  of  "Aragon,  England,  the  Swiss, 
and  the  Venetians,  Julius  11.  being  very  anxious  that 
the  Florentines,  who  were  on  friendly  terms  with 
Louis  Xn.  of  France,  should  join  it.  The  Floren- 
tines were  much  embarrassed  what  to  do,  for  they 
did  not  wish  to  offend  either  Louis  XH.  or  the  King 
of  Aragon.  Eventually  it  was  resolved  to  send  an 
embassy  to  King  Ferdinand  at  Burgos,  and  Guicciar- 
dini  was  selected  on  the  17th  of  October,  1511. 
Upon  the  19th  of  January  following  he  started  on 
his  mission,  his  natural  hesitation  being  overcome  by 
his  father,  who  pointed  out  to  him  what  a  great  dis- 
tinction it  was  for  him  to  be  employed  in  such  a 
capacity  at  his  age. 

The  year  1513  was  marked  by  the  grave  events 
which  followed  the  fall  of  the  French  in  Italy  after 
the  victory  of  Ravenna,  ten  times  more  costly  than 
a  defeat,  and  on  the  2d  of  September  the  Medici 
re-entered  Florence  in  triumph.  The  Florentine  Re- 
pubHc  ceased  to  exist,  and  the  only  ambassador  whose 
post  was  a  permanent  one  was  Jacopo  Salviati,  the 
resident  Minister  at  the  Vatican.  Guicciardini  asked 
to  be  recalled,  and  it  was  while  waiting  permission  to 
demand  a  farewell  audience  of  the  King  that  he  in- 
dited his  "  Ricordi  autobiografici." 

In  October,  1513,  he  left  Burgos  for  Florence, 
where  he  arrived  on  the  5th  of  January  following, 
and  in  August  of  that  year  he  was  appointed  one  of 
the  eight  members  of  the  Balia.     His  father  had  died 


264  FLORENCE. 

in  the  meanwhile,  and  the  sad  news  was  brought  to 
him  at  Piacenza.  After  being  for  some  time  under 
suspicion,  and  having  been  refused  all  part  in  public 
affairs  by  Lorenzo  de'  Medici,  Duke  of  Urbino,  he 
succeeded  in  so  completely  allaying  all  distrust,  that 
the  latter,  when  starting  on  his  campaign  in  Lom- 
bardy,  appointed  Guicciardini  a  member  of  the  Coun- 
cil of  Signori  who  were  to  act  as  regents  during  his 
two  months'  absence. 

From  this  time  forth  he  spent  his  whole  life  in  the 
service  of  the  Government,  and  in  1515  he  was  sent 
to  Cortona  out  of  compliment  to  Leo  X.,  who  stopped 
there  on  his  way  to  meet  Franyois  L,  Bang  of  France, 
at  Bologna.  After  this  mission  was  over  he  was  ap- 
pointed Consistorial  Advocate,  and  then  Governor  of 
Modena  and  Reggio,  whence  he  was  sent  to  Parma, 
and  made  Commissary  General  of  the  Papal  army. 
During  the  war  between  Fran9ois  I.  and  Charles  V., 
Guicciardini  was  employed  to  relieve  the  Milan  exiles 
and  to  raise  an  army  corps  for  the  recovery  of  the 
duchy.  An  opportunity  was  afforded  him  of  showing 
his  abilities  as  a  soldier,  for  the  brother  of  Marshal 
Lautrec,  who  commanded  the  French,  having  tried 
to  take  Reggio  by  surprise,  he  forestalled  the  attack, 
and  recalling  Guido  Rangone,  who  had  been  sent 
with  his  troops  to  Modena,  frustrated  the  plan. 

The  two  pontiffs  who  succeeded  Leo  X.  confirmed 
him  in  his  appointments,  and  Clement  VII.  made  him 
President  of  the  Romagna  and  Lieutenant-General 


ILLUSTfilOUS  FLORENTINES.  255 

of  the  Pontifical  army,  with  authority  over  the  Duke 
of  Urbino  himself. 

The  entrance  of  the  Constable  de  Bourbon  into 
Rome,  and  the  sack  of  the  city  by  his  troops,  re- 
garded as  the  greatest  humiliation  since  the  barbaric 
invasion,  brought  Guicciardini  into  disgrace,  for  Pope 
Clement  VII.,  who  was  a  prisoner  in  the  mole  of 
Hadrian,  reproached  him  for  not  having  staved  off 
defeat.  He  accordingly  withdrew  into  complete  se- 
clusion at  Finocchieto,  and  wrote  a  Dialogue  in  which 
he  confessed  his  errors  and  came  to  the  conclusion 
that  "  human  prudence  is  blind,  and  that  we  are  in 
God's  hands." 

His  disgrace  was  not  of  long  duration.  The  Peace 
of  Barcelona,  signed  by  Clement  VH.  and  Charles 
v.,  gave  peace  to  Italy  at  the  expense  of  Florence. 
Guicciardini  was  made  Governor  of  Bologna,  and  at 
the  Pope's  death  he  took  service  under  the  Medici, 
urging  Duke  Alexander  to  crush  the  democratic  ele- 
ment in  the  city.  The  dagger  of  Lorenzino,  how- 
ever, brought  that  prince's  career  to  an  early  close, 
and  the  younger  branch  came  to  power  with  Cosimo 
I.  Guicciardini,  whose  ambition  grew  by  what  it  fed 
on,  attempted  to  obtain  a  mastery  over  the  young 
prince,  but  the  latter,  wily,  like  most  of  his  race, 
availed  himself  of  Guicciardini's  advice  to  get  rid  of 
his  enemies,  and  then  cast  him  aside  as  a  useless  and 
possibly  dangerous  instrument. 

Guicciardini  withdrew  in  humiliation  to  his  villa  at 


256  FLORENCK 

Arcetri,  and  it  was  there  that  he  wrote  his  "  History 
of  Italy,"  dying,  a  year  afterwards  at  the  age  of 
fifty-seven  (May  27,  1540). 

This  history  is  his  greatest  work,  and  though  the 
merits  of  it  have  been  appraised  in  very  different 
terms,  M.  Thiers,  in  his  "  History  of  the  Consulate 
and  the  Empire,"  says  of  him  that  "  he  has  related 
the  events  of  his  day,  nearly  all  of  which  came  imder 
his  own  observation,  with  such  a  graphic  pen,  and 
with  such  profound  judgment,  that  his  history  de- 
serves a  place  among  the  most  enduring  monuments 
of  human  genius." 

There  are,  however,  many  imperfections  in  his 
works,  for  if  he  is  superior  to  Machiavelli  as  regards 
profimdity  of  judgment  and  eloquence,  he  is  inferior 
to  him  as  regards  the  arrangement  and  style  of  writ- 
ing. Like  Machiavelli,  he  has  left  "  Discourses  on 
the  First  Decade  of  Livy,"  and  he  also  wrote  "  Dis- 
courses upon  the  Changes  and  Reforms  of  the  Gov- 
ernments of  Florence,"  in  which  he  displayed  political 
sagacity  of  the  highest  kind. 

His  Carteggio,  or  collection  of  correspondence  dur- 
ing his  mission  to  Spain,  his  governorship  of  Modena, 
Parma,  and  Reggio,  and  his  presidency  of  the  Ro- 
magna',  is  remarkable  for  the  profimdity  of  judgment 
to  which  it  testifies.  He  was  RepubHcan  in  theory, 
and  to  judge  by  his  writings  possessed  a  filial  affec- 
tion for  Florence  that  caused  his  heart  to  bleed  for 
her  while  she  was  in  the  hands  of  the  stranger.     He 


ILLUSTRIOUS  FLORENTINES.  257 

cordially  detested  the  priesthood  and  its  influence,  but 
by  a  singular  anomaly  he  was  the  friend  of  princes 
and  tyrants,  and  while  denouncing  the  priests  as  im- 
postors, he  was  the  willing  servitor  of  pontiffs.  His 
political  conduct  was  at  total  variance  with  his  doc- 
trines, and  we  must  infer  that  he  was  consumed  by 
ambition  and  the  love  of  power.  One  of  his  dreams 
was  an  Italian  federation  imder  the  supremacy  of 
Florence,  and  Machiavelli,  with  his  keen  insight  into 
the  future,  had  also  anticipated  the  now  realized  unity 
of  the  Peninsula.  Francesco  Guicciardini  left  no  chil- 
dren, but  he  had  a  brother — Lodovico — who  settled  at 
Antwerp,  where  he  married  and  had  a  son,  also  named 
Lodovico,  who  wrote  the  history  of  the  Netherlands. 
This  Lodovico  died  in  1589,  and  his  works,  written 
in  Italian,  have  been  translated  into  German,  Flem- 
ish, and  French,  among  them  being  a  "  Description 
of  the  Netherlands,"  and  "  Commentaries  upon  the 
Events  of  Europe,  and  of  the  Netherlands  in  Particu- 
lar, from  1529  to  1560."  He  had  not  the  keen  vision 
of  his  imcle,  but  his  works  are  regarded  as  standard 
ones  by  the  Dutch. 

GALILEO. 
(1564-1641.) 

Vincenzo  Galilei  and  Julia  Ammanati  of  Pistoja  in 
Tuscany,  were  the  parents  of  Galileo  Galilei,  who  was 
bom  at  Pisa  on  the  15th  of  February,  1564.  His 
introduction  to  science  was  through  poetry,  music, 

17 


268  FLOKENCE. 

and  the  plastic  arts,  but  when  he  had  once  begun  to 
study  science  he  regarded  the  fine  arts  as  no  more 
than  a  relaxation  from  arduous  labor.  His  father 
being  anxious  that  he  should  become  a  doctor,  he  ma- 
triculated at  the  University  of  Pisa  in  1581,  and  at- 
tended the  medical  lectures  of  Andrea  Cesalpino,  but 
having  been  accidentally  led  to  study  mathematics  he 
acquired  such  proficiency  in  that  science  that  in  1589 
he  was  appointed  professor  at  Pisa.  Private  misun- 
derstandings induced  him,  however,  to  remove  to 
Padua,  where  during  eighteen  years  he  filled  the 
chair  of  astronomical  sciences.  Florence,  in  the 
meanwhile,  was  very  anxious  to  secure  his  services, 
and  Cosimo  11.  appointed  him  his  philosopher  and 
mathematician,  supplying  him  with  ample  means  for 
devoting  himself  to  the  speculative  inquiries  and 
costly  experiments  which  his  researches  necessitated. 
His  astronomical  studies  involved  him  in  persecu- 
tion and  suffering,  for  in  propagating  the  system  of 
Copernicus  the  theologians  accused  him  of  teaching 
doctrines  opposed  to  the  Bible,  and  a  Florentine  monk 
hurled  against  him  from  the  pulpit  the  passage  from 
the  Acts  of  the  Apostles,  "  Ye  men  of  Galilee,  why 
stand  ye  gazing  up  into  heaven  ?"  The  noise  of  all 
this  travelled  from  Florence  to  Rome,  and  the  Grand 
Duke,  who  was  obliged  to  show  deference  to  the 
Vatican,  advised  Galileo  to  appear  before  the  Inquisi- 
tion and  defend  himself  against  such  a  false  accusa- 
tion.    He  arrived  at  Rome  in  1615,  but  in  spite  of 


ILLUSTEIOUS  FLORENTINES.  259 

the  ability  with  which  he  argued  that  his  doctrines 
were  orthodox,  he  made  no  impression  upon  the  tri- 
bunal, which  had  made  up  its  mind  to  condemn  him. 
He  was,  however,  allowed  to  go  free  upon  condition 
that  he  did  not  teach  the  doctrine  of  Copernicus,  and 
it  was  subsequent  to  this  that  he  wrote  his  "  Dia- 
logues," and  submitted  them  to  the  censorship  of  the 
Vatican,  obtaining  the  official  sanction  and  printing 
them  in  1632. 

After  an  interval  of  seventeen  years,  from  the  time 
when  Cardinal  Bellarmino,  in  the  name  of  the  Pon- 
tiff, had  forbidden  him  to  propagate  his  doctrines,  he 
was  again  summoned  to  appear  before  the  Inquisition. 
He  was  not  treated  as  an  ordinary  prisoner,  and  the 
Grand  Duke,  full  of  solicitude  for  his  welfare,  did  all 
that  he  could  to  shield  him  from  the  possible  conse- 
quences of  the  dreaded  summons.  He  was  lodged  at 
first  with  the  procurator-fiscal  of  the  Holy  Office,  and 
then  he  was  allowed  to  reside  at  the  house  of  the  Flor- 
entine ambassador,  while  at  last  he  was  permitted  to 
go  about  the  city  upon  parole.  The  trial  lasted  two 
months,  and  it  ended  in  a  retractation,  followed  by  a 
sentence  of  imprisonment  in  the  dungeons  of  the  In- 
quisition. Urban  VHI.,  however,  commuted  the 
pimishment,  and  allowed  him  to  live  first  at  the  Villa 
Medici,  afterwards  in  the  archbishop's  palace  at  Siena, 
and  finally  in  his  own  villa  at  Arcetri,  near  Florence. 
In  1637  he  became  blind,  but  he  continued  to  give 
lessons  to  the  many  devoted  students  of  science  whom 


260  FLOBENCK 

he  had  gathered  around  him,  seated  on  the  terrace  of 
the  villa  where  he  had  spent  so  many  nights  watching 
the  heavens.  Fully  resigned  to  his  lot,  and  venerated 
as  much  for  his  misfortunes  as  for  his  genius,  he  re- 
ceived frequent  visits  from  Cardinal  Leopold  and  the 
Grand  Duke  Ferdinand.  He  died  on  the  18th  of 
January,  1641,  aged  seventy-seven,  and  his  body  was 
interred  with  great  pomp  in  Santa  Croce,  the  monu- 
ment erected  to  his  memory  being  close  to  that  of 
Michael  Angelo.  He  was  the  inventor  of  the  micro- 
scope, the  thermometer,  the  sector,  and  the  small 
hydrostatic  balance.  It  has  been  denied  that  he  in- 
vented the  telescope,  but  in  my  previous  work, 
"  Venice,"  I  have  given  the  official  report  of  the  sit- 
ting of  the  Senate  at  which  he  made  the  experiments 
for  which  he  received  a  pension  from  the  Republic, 
already  much  indebted  to  him  for  his  seventeen  years' 
professorship  at  the  University  of  Padua.  The  proba- 
bility is,  however,  that  he  merely  made  a  practical 
application  of  an  invention  due  to  Jacobus  Mebius,  an 
inhabitant  of  Holland,  adapting  the  glasses  made  by 
the  latter  to  tubes  which  enabled  him  to  make  astro- 
nomical observations.  He  also  invented  the  pendu- 
lum, and  in  a  letter  to  Lorenzo  Redi,  still  extant,  he 
explained  how  it  might  be  adapted  to  clocks.  His 
labors  in  the  domain  of  astronomical  science  were 
almost  boundless.  He  brought  into  clear  relief  the 
system  of  gravitation,  explained  the  formation  of  the 
Milky  Way,  discovered  the  stars  which  accompany 


ILLUSTRIOUS  FLORENTINES.  261 

Saturn,  and  having  ascertained  the  existence  of  satel- 
htes  to  Jupiter,  named  them  "Medici  stars,"  and 
made  a  careful  calculation  of  their  periods.  He  was 
the  first  to  discover  the  unevenness  of  the  moon's 
surface,  its  diameter,  and  the  great  altitude  of  its 
mountains.  He  also  pointed  out  the  spots  on  the  sun, 
and  explained  the  character  of  them. 

In  physical  science  his  researches  were  also  very 
extensive,  and  he  proved  that  a  mote  of  straw  and  a 
piece  of  lead  fall  at  an  equal  rate  when  the  air  is  rare- 
fied. The  pneumatic  machine  was  invented  to  prove 
this  law  of  nature,  and  the  demonstration  was  most 
convincing.  He  laid  down  the  law  as  to  the  accelera- 
tion of  weighty  substances,  and  reduced  to  fixed  and 
certain  principles  their  descent  along  inclined  planes. 
He  devoted  a  great  deal  of  time  also  to  hydrostatics 
and  to  hydraulics,  though  the  only  treatise  which  he 
wrote  about  them  is  that  comprised  in  some  corres- 
pondence concerning  the  overflow  of  the  river  Bisen- 
tio,  near  Florence. 

In  the  course  of  a  recent  debate  in  the  French 
Chamber  of  Deputies  it  was  alleged  that  Gahleo  had 
never  been  persecuted,  but  Signer  Domenico  Berti 
has  published  an  official  report  of  his  trial,  with  the 
documents  preserved  in  the  State  archives  at  Rome. 

After  his  first  summons  to  Rome  Galileo,  as  I  said 
above,  wrote  the  "  Dialogue  upon  the  two  principal 
Systems  of  the  World,"  those  of  Ptolemy  and  Coper- 
nicus, and  this  takes  the  form  of  a  conversation  in 


262  FLORENCE. 

which  defunct  personages,  including  one  Salviati,  a 
Florentine  friend  of  Galileo's,  discuss  their  own  doc- 
trines and  those  of  their  opponents,  the  conclusion 
(evidently  dictated  by  fear  of  the  Inquisition,  which 
had  acquitted  him  with  a  severe  warning)  being  that 
it  was  best  not  to  pronounce  definitely  as  to  the  sys- 
tem of  the  world. 

Three  copies  of  the  "Dialogues,"  which  were 
printed  at  Florence,  found  their  way  to  Rome,  and 
being  brought  to  the  notice  of  Urban  Vm.,  that  pon- 
tiff manifested  great  displeasure,  and  summoned 
Galileo  to  appear  a  second  time  in  Rome ;  failing 
which,  "  a  doctor  and  a  commissioner  of  the  Holy 
Office  would  repair  to  Florence  at  his  expense,  have 
him  arrested,  and  brought  to  Rome  in  chains."  There 
can  be  no  doubt  that  Galileo's  courage  gave  way,  and 
on  June  22,  1633,  he  read  his  recantation  in  the 
church  of  Sta  Maria  Sopra  Minerva.  Three  out  of  the 
ten  judges,  including  the  Pope's  own  nephew,  ab- 
stained from  signing  the  sentence,  which,  moreover, 
never  received  the  Papal  ratification. 

The  following  is  an  authentic  translation  of  the  in- 
structions for  his  trial : — "  Galileo  must  be  interro- 
gated as  to  his  intentions,  under  threat  of  torture  ac 
si  sustinuerit,  be  made  to  abjure  at  a  plenary  sitting 
of  the  Holy  Office  doctrines  strongly  tainted  with 
heresy,  condemned  to  a  term  of  imprisonment  at  the 
pleasure  of  the  Holy  Congregation,  and  enjoined 
never  at  any  future  time,  either  by  word  or  by  writ- 


ILLUSTEI0U8  FLOEENTINES.  263 

ing,  to  say  anything  about  the  motion  of  the  earth 
and  the  fixity  of  the  sun,  under  pain  of  fresh  punish- 
ment." It  should  be  added  that,  notwithstanding  all 
that  has  been  written  by  Signor  Berti,  M.  Mezi^res, 
and  others,  we  have  no  certain  proof  as  to  whether 
or  not  Galileo  was  put  to  the  torture ;  and  M.  Jides 
Loiseleur  has  recently  argued,  with  much  show  of 
plausibiUty,  that  he  was  not.  The  words  ac  si  sus- 
tinuerit  may  be  used  in  either  sense,  for  while  one 
side  applies  them  to  the  torture  itself  ("  if  he  can  bear 
it,"  argues  Signor  Berti),  the  partisans  of  Urban 
Vni.  interpret  them  as  meaning  "  if  he  persists." 

The  conclusion  of  the  judgment  runs:  "And  as  it 
appeared  to  us  that  you  had  not  spoken  the  whole 
truth,  we,  knowing  your  intention,  have  deemed  it 
meet  to  make  a  rigorous  examination  of  you  {rigor- 
osum  examen  tui),  in  which  you  have  repUed  prop- 
erly, leaving  out  of  the  question  those  things  which 
you  have  confessed  and  those  which  have  been  de- 
duced against  you  above  relative  to  the  said  inten- 
tion." 

M.  Loiseleur  says  that  Galileo  had  not  the  stuff  of 
a  martyr  in  him,  and  that  in  all  his  answers  he  shows 
a  spirit  of  ready  submission.  If  so  we  must  suppose 
that  the  famous  exclamation,  "  E  pur  si  muove,"  is 
only  a  legend ;  but  whether  we  take  the  side  of  the 
Church  or  that  of  science,  it  is  painful  to  think  that 
this  old  man,  whose  Ufe  had  been  spent  in  the  search 
after  truth,  should,  when  his  frame  was  too  weak  to 


264  FLORENCR 

endure  physical  torture,  have  undergone  such  moral 
torture  as  to  repudiate  the  doctrines  in  which  he  had 
placed  a  lifelong  faith. 

OTTAVIO  RINTOCINI. 
(1550-1621.) 

Ottavio  bore  a  name  which  had  already  been  made 
famous  by  Filippo  Alamanno  Rinuccini,  who  was  one 
of  the  earliest  academicians  of  the  Ruccellai  Gardens, 
and  he  claims  the  distinction  of  being  one  of  the  earliest 
composers  of  the  recitative  of  the  modem  opera,  or 
lyric  poem.  The  name  opera  was  not  given  until 
later,  but  in  1580,  at  the  festivals  to  celebrate  the 
marriage  of  Ferdinand,  Grand  Duke  of  Tuscany, 
with  Princess  Christine  of  Lorraine,  he  wrote  the 
verses  for  five  musical  interludes,  the  subject  being 
the  victory  of  Apollo  over  the  Python.  In  order  to 
connect  the  various  musical  parts,  composers  went 
back  to  the  melopoea  of  the  ancients,  and  the  name 
of  ^'  recital "  is  still  given  to  it  in  Italy. 

He  made  a  further  step  forward  in  the  "  Pastoral 
of  Daphne"  which  was  represented  in  the  Corsi 
Palace  before  the  leading  members  of  Florence 
society.  He  next  wrote  Eurydice,  which  he  himself 
styled  a  "  Tragedia  per  Musica,"  and  this  opera  was 
given  with  great  pomp  and  splendor  at  the  marriage 
rejoicings  of  Henri  IV.  and  Maria  de'  Medici. 

Ottavio  owed  much  to  the  patronage  of  this  prin- 
cess, who  induced  him  to  come  to  the  French  Court ; 


ILLUSTKI0U8  FLORENTINES. 

but  his  new  mode  of  life  was  so  distasteful  to  him 
that  he  soon  returned  to  Florence,  where,  in  1608, 
he  wrote  Ariadne  at  Naxos  for  the  wedding  of  Gon- 
zaga.  Prince  of  Mantua,  and  the  Infante  Margaret  of 
Savoy. 

The  form  of  these  poems  is  perfect,  and  the  verses 
go  very  well  to  music,  while  there  is  more  passion 
and  life  in  them  than  in  the  somewhat  artificial  com- 
positions of  Quinault. 

Besides  these  lengthy  works,  Rinuccini  composed 
some  very  clever  Anacreontic  odes  in  the  Concetti 
style,  and  he  was  much  appreciated  in  the  best  society 
of  Florence  for  his  ever-ready  wit. 

He  was  collecting  his  works,  with  the  intention  of 
dedicating  them  to  Louis  XTTT.  of  France,  at  the  time 
of  his  death,  and  his  son,  Piero  Francesco,  completed 
the  task. 

This  brings  to  a  close  the  list  of  the  men  who  con- 
tributed the  most  to  the  propagation  of  the  new  ideas: 
for  the  seventeenth  century  belongs  to  the  modem 
era,  which  cannot  be  treated  of  here.  Moreover,  the 
supremacy  of  Florence  declined  after  the  sixteenth 
century  ;  and  in  the  next  chapter  I  shall  speak  of  the 
art  to  which  that  supremacy  was  due. 


?313 

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